100 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



2. Myrsine, Linn. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves entire or serrate, often thick, usually 

 pellucid-punctate. Floioers polygamous or dioecious, fascicled, axillary 

 or on very short branches, pedicels short with many imbricate bracts. 

 Calyx small, lobes 4 to 5 persistent. Corolla 4-5-lobed, the lobes 

 imbricate in bud, recurved in flower. Stamens 4 to 5 ; filaments short, 

 inserted at the base of the corolla-lobes ; anthers short, ovate ; 

 staminodes none. Ovary free, globose or ovoid ; style usually short, 

 cylindric or angular ; stigma capitate or 2-5-lobed ; ovules few or 

 many, immersed in the placenta. Fruit a small, dry or somewhat 

 fleshy, berry, 1-seeded. Seed solitary, globose, sessile, hollowed at 

 the base ; albumen pitted ; embryo elongate, cylindric or curved, 

 horizontal. — Distrib. Species about 80, chiefly tropical, a few in 

 Japan, extra-tropical Africa, Australia and New Zealand. All our 

 species belong to Mez' genu.s Bapanea. 



Arrested branches bearing the umbels very short, •! in. long or 

 under : — 



Leaf-nerves and reticulations obscure, leaves small, under 2-5 in. 1. M. avenis. 

 Leaf-nerves and reticulations visible, leaves usually over 2-5 in : — 

 Leaves under 4 in. long, chartaceous, blackish when dry ; 

 pedicels short, -1 in. long . . . . . . . . 2. M. Porteriana. 



Leaves over 4 in. long, coriaceous, reddish when dry ; pedicels 



over -15 in. long . . . . . . . . 3. If. j^erakensis. 



Arrested branches bearing the umbels '3 in. long or more : — 



Leaves rounded at apex ; berry -2 in. in diam. . . . . 4. M. Wrayi. 



Leaves emarginate at apex ; berry 3 in. in diam. . . . . 5. M. umhellulata . 



1. Myrsine avenis, A. DC. in Trans. Linn. Soc. XVII. 107 (1834). 

 A small tree ; branches pale, rounded ; branchlets wrinkled when dry, 

 faintly ferruginous-tomentose, leaf-buds long acuminate. Leaves 

 entire, chartaceous ; oblong-lanceolate, bluntly acute at apex, acutely 

 narrowed at base, glabrous, marked with resinous often very con- 

 spicuous lineoles and dots along the margin especially near the apex, 

 margins usually recurved; 1 to 2-5 in. long, -5 to "75 in. broad; mid- 

 rib prominent, impressed above ; main-nerves very obscure as are the 

 reticulations; petiole "2 in. long, slender, edged with the ciliate margins 

 of the decurrent blade. Floivers in compact sessile 2-5-flowered 

 umbels on very short thick arrested branches ; bracts oblong 

 acute ; pedicels about -1 in. long, angular ; flower-buds ovate, flowers 

 5-merous. Calyx-lobes triangular, acute, ciliate, with few round 

 glandular dots ; tube as long as lobes. Corolla-lobes imbricate, elliptic, 

 pubescent on the margins, sparsely round-gland-dotted, connate for 

 about one-third of their length. Stamens as long as corolla-lobes ; anthers 



