Oomhretum.] XXXVI. COMBRETACE^. 221 



drical or 4-5-angled, constricted above the ovary, with a campanulate 4-5- 

 cleft deciduous limh. Petals 4-5, small, inserted between the calyx-lobes. 

 Stamens 8 or 10, biseriate, with long slender filaments, and small didymous 

 anthers. Ovary 1-celled, with a subulate style, and 2-6 pendulous 

 ovules. Fruit coriaceous, often filkd with spongy cellular tissue, 4-6- 

 angled or 4-6-winged, 1-seeded. 



1. C. decandrum, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 232 ; Cor. PI. t. 59.— Syn. Foivrm 

 Roxburghii, DC. ; W. & A. Prodr. 317. Vern. Dhobela, Chindwara ; 

 Punk, Gonda, Oudh. 



A lairge climbing shrub ; young leaves, branchlets, and inflorescence 

 clothed with soft silky pubescence. Leaves glabrous, opposite, elliptic- 

 oblong, acuminate, about 6 in. long on short petioles, with 6-8 main 

 lateral arcuate nerves on either side of midrib. Flowers pentamerous and 

 decandrous, on numerous cylindrical, terminal, and lateral bracteate 

 spikes, forming a long panicle, the floral-leaves coloured. Bracts as well 

 as peduncles and calyx clothed with soft ferruginous hairs. Fruit 1 in. 

 long, with 5 equal broad obtuse membranous wings. 



Common in Bengal, Behax, South India, Oudh, Kamaon, and the Central 

 Provinces, chiefly in open jungle. PL Feb.-Maroh ; fruit June. 



C. nanum, HamUt. ; Wall. Cat. 3994, is a small undershrub, vern. Pharsia, 

 Kamaon, perfectly glabrous, with a thick woody prostrate stem. Common in 

 grass-lands of the Doons, Siwaliks, and sub-Himalayan tract, from the Jumna 

 to Sikkim, in the Oudh forests, in Behar, and the Central Provinces. Flowers 

 \ in. long to end of .stamens, in terminal and axillary spikes, bracts deciduous, 

 leaves opposite, broad-obovate, 2-4 in. long, with 3-4 pair of main lateral arcu- 

 ate nerves. The leaf- and flower-beariag stems are burnt down annually to the 

 root by the fires. Fl. March, April. 



2. LITMNITZERA, Willd. 



Trees or shrubs with alternate, thick and somewhat fleshy leaves. 

 Flowers white or red, nearly sessile, racemose. Calyx-tube oblong, a little 

 prolonged beyond the ovary, with 2 adnate bractlets ; limb campanulate, 

 5-lobed, persistent. Petals 5. Stamens 5-10 ; filaments filiform ; anthers 

 cordate. Ovary 1-celled, with 2-5 pendulous ovules. Fruit small, ovate- 

 oblong, more or less compressed, bluntly angled, crowned by the persis- 

 tent calyx, enclosing in a fibrous pericarp a hard osseous 1-seeded nut. 

 Seed linear, cotyledons convolute. 



1. L. racemosa, Willd. ; W. & A. Prodr. 316. — Syn. Petaloma alter- 

 nifolia, Eoxb. FL Ind. ii. 372. Vern. Kripa, Beng. 



A tree or tall shrub, perfectly glabrous, with spathulate fleshy crenate 

 leaves 2 in. long, somewhat approximate near the ends of branches; 

 lateral nerves 3-5 on either side of midrib, indistinct. Petals white. 

 Stamens 10. Eacemes (more correctly spikes, as the flowers are all but 

 sessile) lax, longer than leaves, axillary, or from below the leaves. 



On the edge of salt-water creeks and back-waters in the Sunderbunds, in 

 Malabar and the Konkan ; may possibly be found in Sindh. Found also on the 

 Zambesi river, and in Australia. Wood strong and durable ; used for building, 

 and furnishes a large portion of the fuel for Calcutta (Roxb.) 



