Plecospermum.] LXVII. UETICACE^. 401 



Stamens inflected in bud ; styles two more or less connate at 

 the base. ~ ' 



Female fl. numerous, spicate 6. Morus. 



Female il. solitary . 7. Steeblus. 



Stamens not inflected in bud ; style one. 



Flowers on the inside of a hollow, globose, or pear-shaped 



receptacle 8. Ficus. 



Flowers on the outside of a fleshy receptacle ; in globose 

 or cylindrical heads. 

 Flowers dioicous ; perianths of 4, free, not connate seg- 

 ments or leaves 9. Cudrania. 



Flowers monoicous; male perianth of 2-4 segments or 

 leaves ; female perianths tubular connate with each 



other 10. Aetocaepos. 



Stamens not inflected in bud ; styles two, more or less connate 

 at the base. 

 Flowers polygamous ; ovary 1 -celled; fruit fleshy. 



Perianth deciduous ; stamens shorter than perianth . 11. Cbltis. 

 Perianth persistent ; stamens longer than perianth . 12. Spohia. 

 Flowers commonly bisexual ; ovary 1-2-celled ; fniit a 



winged samara 13. Ulmus. ,' 



1. PLECOSPERMUM, Trecul. 



Tree or shrub with alternate entire leaves. Flowers dioicous, collected 

 in dense globular heads. Male fl. : perianth 4-fid, segments imbricate. 

 Stamens free ; filaments inflexed in aestivation ; anthers globose, 2-celled. 

 Ovary rudimentary. Female fl. : perianth gamophyllous, with a narrow 

 4-dentate mouth. Ovary free, 1-celled, with a solitary pendulous ovule ; 

 style filiform, exserted ; stigma papillose. Fertile nuts [consolidated with 

 the succulent,perianth-segments and abortive ovaries into an irregular few- 

 seeded berry-like syncarpium ; seed exalbuminous. 



1. P. spinosum, Trecul; DC. Prodr. xvii. 233; Wight Ic. t. 1963.— 

 Syn. Batis spinosa, Eoxb. Fl, Ind. iii. 762; Trqphis spinosa, WiUd. 

 (partly). 



A large shrub or small tree, armed with straight axillary spines ; 

 branchlets glabrous, only extremities and inflorescence pubescent. Leaves 

 glabrous, short-petiolate, pval elliptic or obovate, obtuse or acute, entire, 

 2-3 in. long, lateral nerves and reticulate veins indistinct. Flower-heads 

 yellowish, axillary, solitary or 2-3 together, on peduncles as long as heads, 

 the male heads \ in. diam., the female heads smaller while in flower, but 

 enlarging in fruit to about J in. Male fl. : perianth-segments obtuse or 

 emarginate, hairy outside. Stamens inserted around a hairy rudimentary 

 ovary, inflexed in bud, exserted afterwards. Perianths of female fl. con- 

 nate into a pubescent globose head, the orifice of each perianth indistinctly 

 4-toothed, and a single filiform papDlose style protruding from it. Fruit 

 a compound irregularly-shaped 1-2-seeded berry, ^ in. diam., the other 

 ovaries being abortive. 



Nepal, Eohilkhand (Salt range, rare, on the top of mountains at 3000 ft. — • 

 J. L. S.) South India, Ceylon. Fl. Feb.-April. Bark fibrous. 



2 C 



