404 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 
fascicled or panicled, the female spikes axillary, the bracts 1—4- 
flowered ; in moneecious species the male flowers below, the female 
above. Male flowers: stamens 3—6, rarely more, on a torus adnate 
to the bract; filaments short, free or connate; anthers erect, 2- 
celled. Female flowers: ovary l-celled, sessile, with 2—4 minute 
bracteoles; style bifid, inwardly stigmatose; ovule 1, erect, ortho- 
tropous. Drupe ovoid or globose with a resinous, often papillose, 
succulent or waxy exocarp and hard endovarp. Seed erect; testa 
membranous, albumen 0; embryo straight, cotyledons plano-convex, 
radicle short, superior. Genus 1. 
1. Myrica, Linn. 
Characte rs of the Family. 
Distris. Species about 63, in temperate and tropical regions, 
not yet reported from Australia. 
1. Myrica &SCULENTA, Buch.-Ham. in D. Don Prodr. Fl. Nep. 
56 (1825). A small evergreen dicecious tree or large shrub, some- 
times reaching 10 m. in height; branches rather stout with smooth 
greyish brown bark, branchlets pale, lenticellate, the uppermost 
brownish-pubescent. Leaves coriaceous, crowded towards the ends of 
the branchlets; oblanceolate or obovate, rounded or obtuse or 
obtusely acute at apex, cuneate at base; slightly pubescent beneath 
when young, especially on the midrib, and sparsely covered with 
circular resinous glands, glabrous on both surfaces when old, when 
dry the upper surface nearly black, the lower purplish-brown ; margins 
entire or serrulate towards the tip, those of young shoots often 
prominently dentate; 4—12 cm. long, 2—4 cm. broad; midrib prom- 
inent on both surfaces; main nerves 10—15 pairs, usually nearly at 
right angles with the midrib, joining in loops near the margin; 
secondary nerves short, reticulation areolate; petiole 4—6 mm. long, 
tuberculous. Flowers: o in panicles 4—5 em. long; catkins in 
clusters on a pubescent rhachis and its branches, the catkins up 
to 3 cm. long; each catkin subtended by an ovate cordate bract 
about 1:5 mm long, covered with glandular scales; flowers in each 
catkin about 10—12, each with a small ovate cordate flowering bract 
and 3—6 stamens; anthers orbicular, 2-celled, filaments short : 2 in 
simple sp kes up to about 4cm. long; rhachis grey-pubescent ; flowers 
in each catkin about 3, subtended by an ovate obtuse glandular-scaly 
bract about 1 mm. long, each flower with a bract about 0-5 mm. 
long; styles long; scales at the base of the ovary 2—3, very minute. 
