96 XXV. EHAMNE^. [Soger etia. 



Branohlets often spinescent, glabrous, or young parts pulDescent. Leaves 

 short-petioled, eUiptic or ovate, more ,or less distinctly serrate, Mi m 

 lonc^, with 3 or 4 pairs of distant lateral nerves, glabrous, shining on both 

 sid^s, pale beneath. Flowers in terminal and lateral panicles Bracts 

 brown, ovate. Fruit globular, the size of a smaH pea, irregularly rugose, 

 dark brown when ripe. 



Common in places on the eastern flank of the Suliman range, at between 

 2000 and 8000 fl; in the Salt range, and in the North-West Himalaya, between 

 3000 and 8000 ft., from the Jhelam to the Sarda ; also in China and Japan. 

 Fl Au>Just-November. A small shrub 6-8 ft. high ; the bark of older branches 

 grey or brown, with small white lentioels and shallow longitudinal furrows.-' 

 The fruit is eaten in parts of the Himalaya, and in China. The leaves are 

 used as tea by the poorer classes in China. 



6. VENTILAGO, Gsertn. 



Climbing, unarmed shrubs, with alternate, simple, petiolate leaves. 

 Flowers small, pentamerous, bisexual, in terminal or axillary panicles. 

 Calyx-segments keeled inside. Petals hooded, defiexed. Stamens 

 a(^nat6 to the base of the petals. Disc pentagonal, margin free. Ovary 

 immersed in the disc, 2-celled ; style very short. Fruit a subglobose nut, 

 prolonged into an apical, linear, coriaceous wing, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed 

 subglobose, exalbuminous, with a membranous testa ; cotyledons thick, 

 fleshy ; radicle inferior, very short. 



Lower half of fruit enclosed in the cup-sliaped calyx . 1. V. calyculata. 

 Remains of calyx forming a flat disc at the base of frnit 2. V. maderaspatana. 



1. V. calyculata, Tulasne. — Syn. V. maderaspatana; Eoxb. Cor. PL 

 t. 76 ; Fl. Ind. i. 629. Vern. Papri, C.P. ; Rakat-pita, kola lag, Kamaon. 



A large climbing shrub, with woody tendrils ; branchlets, petioles, the 

 younger leaves, and infl.orescence pubescent. Leaves glabrate, subcoria- 

 ceous, elliptic-oblong from an oblique base, acuminate, irregularly dentate 

 or entire ; main lateral nerves 6-8 on either side of midrib, arcuate, anas- 

 tomosing by numerous fine parallel and distinct intramarginal veins ; 

 blade 3-4 in. ; petiole less than \ in. long. Flowers numerous, small, 

 greenish, with a strong and offensive smell, in long, terminal, leafless 

 panicles. Nut subglobose, \ in. diam., girt about the middleby the 

 rim of the adnate calyx ; wing linear, 2|- in. long, pubescent, terminated 

 by the remains of the bifid style. 



Bengal, Central India, Western Ghats, Oudh forests, Rohilkhand, and suh- 

 Himalayan tract to the Jumna— climbing to the top of the tallest trees. Fl. 

 March. Seed ripens May. 



V. Bombaiensis, Dalzell Bomb. Fl. 48, probably belongs to this species. 



2. V. maderaspatana, Gsertner; Wight Ic. t. 163 ; "W. & A. Prodr. 

 164. — Vern. Lokandi, kanwail, Bomb. 



A large climbing shrub ; leaves ovate, acuminate, coriaceous, shining, 

 pubescent while young. Nut globose, ^ in. diam., the remains of calyx 



