346 



LVI. .DATISCACE^E 



f Tetrameles 



Order LVI. DATISCACE^l. den. PL i. 884. (Datiscese.) 



TETRAMELES, R. Br.; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 657. 



T. nudiflora, R. Br. (the only species) ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 212.— Syn. T. 



Grdhamiana, Wight Ic. t. 1956. Vera. Yermal, Kan. ; Chini, Tarn. ; Chini 



Telia Pasa, Mai. ; Thitpdk, Lower, Baing, Upper Burma. 



A very tall, fast growing 

 deciduous tree, wood soft, 

 trunk straight, often much 

 buttressed at the base, bark 

 smooth, grey, leaf-scars pro- 

 minent on branchlets ; petioles 

 and young 1. hairy. L. broadly 

 ovate, base cordate, 5 basal 

 nerves, blade 5-7, petiole 2-1 

 in. long, stipules 0. Fl. dioeci- 

 ous, tetr^merous, apetalous, 

 £ in panicles fasciculate at 

 the ends of branchlets, calyx 

 deeply cut into 5 segments, 

 stamens 4, round a depressed 

 disk, opposite to calyx-seg- 

 ments. ? in numerous ter- 

 minal pendulous racemes, 

 pedicels very short, ovary in- 

 ferior, 8-ribbed, 1-celled, ovules 

 x on 4 parietal placentas. 

 Capsule crowned by the per- 

 sistentcalyx-segments, opening 

 at the summit, the valves 

 terminating in the persistent 

 styles. Seeds minute, embryo 

 cylindrical, in scanty albumen. 



Terai and outer hills, Darjeeling 

 district ascending to 3,000 ft. 

 Andamans. Burma, Upper and 

 Lower. Western Ghats and Nil- 

 giris, in Sholas and evergreen 

 forest. L. shed early in January. 

 Fl. Feb.-Apr. while leafless. — Cey- 

 lon. Ind. Archip. 



Order LVII. — Cactacese. Opuntia 

 Dillenii, Haw. ; Wight 111. t. 114. 

 Prickly Pear. Vera. Nagphana, 

 Hind. ; Xagajemmadu, Tel. ; Mul- 

 lugalli, Papaskalli, Kan. Indigen- 

 ous in South America, naturalized 

 in India, extending North as far 

 as the Jhelum, and ascending to 

 2,000 ft. in the N.-West Himalaya. 

 Branches flat, succulent, jointed, 

 the joints more or less obovate, bearing dense woolly hairs with tufts of numerous 

 bristles and long sharp spines. Fl. bisexual, regular, yellow, tinged with red, open 

 during the day only, arising from the tufts on the upper edge of the joints. Calyx- 

 tube adnate to the ovary, not prolonged beyond it, lobes numerous, on the upper edge 

 and on the surface of the calyx-tube (more correctly called a hollow receptacle, see p. 



Fig. 146. — Tetrameles nudiflora, B. Br. 



