I 



LAURACEAE £09 



5 cm long, 1-flowered, with a lanceolate, 2 cm long bract below the middle. 

 Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, about 1.3 cm long. Petals somewhat 

 pubescent, yellow, fragrant, 4 to 5 cm long. Carpels numerous, moniliform, 

 2 to 5 cm long, stalked, each joint with a single seed. 



I have seen a single specimen of this collected in Manila, but have never 

 seen the living plant; introduced here, although apparently indigenous in 

 Palaw^an. - India to Malaya. 



6. POLYALTHA Blume 



Erect shrubs or trees. Flowers leaf -opposed, solitary. Sepals 3. Petals 

 6, 2-seriate, ovate or elongated, flat. Stamens cuneate; anther-cells ex- 

 trorse, remote. Ovaries many; ovules 1 or 2, basal and erect or subbasal 

 and ascending. (Greek "many" and "to heal," from supposed medicinal 

 properties of some species.) / 



Species about 50, mostly tropical Asia and Malaya, a few in Africa and- 

 Australia, about IB in the Philippines. 



1. P. suberosa (Roxb.) Benth. & Hook. f. Tagputagpuan, Duhatduhatan 

 (Tag.). 



A shrub or small tree 2 to 4 m high, the branchlets slightly pubescent. 

 Leaves oblong to narrowly obovate-oblong, subacute, blunt or somewhat 

 rounded at the apex, 5 to 11 cm long, slightly pubescent beneath, the 

 petioles very short. Flowers pale-yellow, solitary, 1 cm long or less, their 

 pedicels leaf-opposed, slender, 1 to 2 cm long, the sepals and petals slightly 

 pubescent. Fruits numerous, ovoid or globose, purple, fleshy, edible, 4 to 

 5 mm long. (Fl. Filip. pi. 19S, Phaeanthus malabaricus.) 



Occasional in thickets ett., fl. all the year; widely distributed in the 

 Philippines at low altitudes. India. 



55. LAURACEAE (Laurel or Baticuling Family) 



Trees or shrubs with opposite, alternate, or somewhat whorled, ex- 

 stipulate leaves, or (Cassytha) leafless, parasitic, herbaceous, vines. Flow- 

 ers small, regular, perfect, or uninsexual and monoecious or dioecious, 

 axillary, usually paniculate, sometimes spicate. Perianth with a short 

 tube, the segments 3 to 8, usually 6, often deciduous. Stamens 6 to 30, 

 usually 9, in 3 or more rows, inserted on the perianth-tube; fllaments flat- 

 tened, sometimes with glands near the base; anthers 2- or 4-celled, opening 

 by up-curving lids. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with a solitary ovule pen- 

 dulous from the top. Fruit dry or fleshy, often surrounded at the base 

 by the persistent perianth-tube. Seed solitary, pendulous, embryo large, 

 cotyledons plano-convex, endosperm none. 



Genera 47, species more than 1,000, warmer parts of both hemispheres, 

 chiefly tropical, about 12 genera and 75 species in the Philippines. 



1. Shrubs or trees. 

 2. Perianth persistent in fruit; fruits small. 



3. Leaves and bark very, aromatic; leaves mostly 3- or 5-nerved; 



flowers not involucrate 1. Cinnamomum 



3. Leaves and bark not or but slightly aromatic; leaves penninerved; 



flowers involucrate 2. Litsea 



2. Perianth deciduous; fruit large, fleshy edible 3. Persea 



1. Twining, leafless, yellow-brown, parasitic, slender vines 4. Cassytha 



111565 14 



