302 XLYIII. HAMAMELIDACE^E [Bucklandia 



large, enveloping the buds, oblong, coriaceous, deciduous. El. polygamous, in 

 peduncled heads of 8-20, more or less connate by their calyces. Calyx-tube 

 adnate to ovary, limb 5-lobed. Petals in the bisexual fl. variable in number, 

 linear-spathulate, in the female fl. rudimentary. Stamens 10-14, filaments 

 long. Ovary half-inferior, ovules 6 in each cell, in 2 rows. Capsule sub- 

 globose, the lowest seed winged and fertile, the upper seeds sterile. 



Sikkim (3-8,000 ft.). Bhutan. Assam, Khasi lulls, Manipiir. HiUs.of Martaban. Fl. 

 at all seasons (Gamble List 38) Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java. 



4. ALTINGIA, Noronha : Fl. Brit. Inch ii. 429. 

 (Species 2, one in China.) 



A. excelsa, Noronha ; Kurz P. Fl. i. 445. Vera. Jutili, Ass. 



A very tall aromatic deciduous tree, trunk often 100 ft. to the first branch, 

 wood hard, brown, aromatic. Almost entirely glabrous, the terminal buds 

 ovoid acuminate, silky with minute simple hairs. Leaves lanceolate, serrate, 

 penninerved, blade 3-5, petiole slender 1 in. long. Fl. unisexual, in dense heads, 

 $ heads cylindrical, supported by large silky bracts arranged in short spikes 

 or racemes, each head consisting of a fleshy axis having numerous closely 

 packed almost sessile anthers, ? heads pedunculate, solitary, axillary, calyces 

 confluent, petals 0. Fruit heads rough, globose, woody, h in. diam., capsules 

 velvety with simple hairs, almost immersed in the confluent calyces. Seeds 

 numerous, all but one sterile. Fertile seed at the bottom of capsule surrounded 

 by a membranous wing. 



Assam, Bhutan. Kachin hills, Upper Burma. Tenasserim, gregarious along the 

 banks of rivers in Mergui. Fl. R. S. Fr. Feb.-May. Yunnan. Java. This like the 

 •closely allied Liquidambar orientalis, Mill., of Asia Minor, yields a resin (Storax) con- 

 tained in canals, which accompany the vascular bundles to the last ramifications of the 

 leaf-nerves, and which in the stem run along the circumference of the pith in close 

 proximity to the oldest wood (protoxylem). 



Order XLIX. RHIZOPHORACEjE. Gen. PL i. 677. 

 (Bit izopltorece.) 



(Schimper in Engler u. Prantl iii. 7. 42.) 



Trees and shrubs, generally glabrous, leaves opposite, usually coriaceous and 

 entire, scars of petioles in most genera prominent on branchlets. Stipules 

 interpetiolar deciduous. Fl. regular, generally bisexual. Calyx more or less 

 adnate to ovary, rarely free, limb 4-14-lobed,. lobes valvate, as a rule coriaceous 

 and persistent, petals as many as sepals often 2-fid or laciniate, stamens usually 

 twice the number of petals. Ovary 2-5- (rarely 1-) celled, ovules mostly 2 in 

 each cell, pendulous from the apex. Style one. Fr. coriaceous, usually 1-celled 

 1-seeded. 



The litoral species of this, together with trees and shrubs of other orders, form 

 the Mangrove forests, which have a strikingly peculiar character. In the soft mud 

 in which they grow, these species are firmly anchored by means of widely spreading 

 and much branching roots, and in many cases by aerial roots descending from the 

 branches. Thus they are protected against being uprooted by storms and by the 

 waves during high water. The leaves have a very thick cuticle and other arrange- 

 ments for diminishing transpiration, and they are full of water-storing tissue. Their 

 structure resembles that of plants growing in deserts and in very dry localities, and 

 the probable explanation is, that transpiration is checked, in order to prevent an 

 injurious excess of the sea-water salts in the sap which fills their tissue. Mangrove 

 trees and shrubs have other peculiar features, such as knees and other excrescences 

 projecting upwards from the roots, believed to facilitate the access of air to the roots, 

 which are immersed in mud and water ; as well as the fact that their seeds often germi- 

 nate on the tree, making considerable growth before they fall into the mud of the tidal 

 swamp. 



