442 LXIX. EUPHOEBIACE^. [Excoscaria. 



3. E. insignis, Miill. Arg. — Syn. Faleoneria insignis and F. Walliehi- 

 ana, Eoyle 111. t. 84a- p rrialalarica, Wight Ic. t. 1866. Vern. Dudla, 

 hilodar, hiloja, kardlla, Pb. ; Khinna, khlna, Eenda, lendwa, hnda, N.W.P. 



A middle-sized or large, glabrous, milky, deciduous tree, with thick 

 branches and bright-green foliage. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 dentate, blade 6-15 in., petiole thick, 1-2 in. long, with 2 stipitate circuhr 

 glands at the apex, main lateral nerves arcuate, 15-20 pair. Flowers in 

 long, somewhat fleshy, naked terminal spikes, male and female flowers on 

 distinct branches (dioicous, Wight). Male flowers shortly pe.diceUate, in 

 circular fascicles, the inner flowers, which expand first, falling off from 

 the persistent base of their pedicels. Calyx of 2 broad, nearly distinct 

 thin membranous segments. Fruit a spike of numerous, subsessile, ovoid 

 capsules, \ in. long, on a thick rachis, the capsules 2-3-celIed, fleshy at 

 first, dry and irregularly dehiscent when ripe. 



Sub-Himalayan tract and warm valleys of the outer hills, extending west to 

 the Bias, and ascending to 4000 ft. (in Kamaon to 5500 ft.), Chittagong, Burma, 

 KarniU hills (Bedd.) and Western Ghats, known a's far north as Nassik. Leafless 

 during the dry season ; the young foliage appears in May. Fl. Jan.- March, 

 while the tree is bare ; fr. May, June. Attains 50-60 ft., trunk 12 ft. long and 

 3 ft. girth. At 5000 ft. in Kamaon a stunted tree, 10-12 ft. high, and not rarely 

 killed to the grpund by frost. Bark grey, smooth, shining, with large broad 

 longitudinal wrinkles. AU parts of the tree are full of an acrid milk, said to 

 be poisonoiis. Wood whitish, very soft, spongy and brittle, used to make the 

 cylinders of native drums. 



JH. Agallocha, WiJld. ; Roxb. 1. c. 756, is a small, glabrous, crooked, and 

 stunted milky tree in the Sundarbans, on the sea-coast of Bengal, the peninsula, 

 the Indian Archipelago, and North Australia {Geria, Beng.), with coriaceous, 

 elliptic-lanceolate, shghtly crenate leaves, lateral nerves indistinct, and dioicous, 

 fragrant flowers in axillary spikes. Male flowers fasciculate, calyx of 4 linear 

 sepals, anthers 3, on long exserted filaments. Capsule 3-lobed, coriaceoiis, \ in. 

 across. The white milk is acrid and poisonous. The Agallochum wood is not 

 the produce of this tree, but of Aquilaria Agallocha, Linn. (p. 387). 



To the tribe of liippomanece belong also : — 



Jatropha Curcas, Linn. ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 686, is a glabrous soft-woQded 

 shrub, with long-petiolate cordate, angular leaves, and yellow flowers in axil- 

 lary pedunculate paniculate cymes. Calyx - segments 5, imbricate in bud. 

 Petals twice the length of calyx-segments. Disc of 5 glands alternating with 

 petals. Stamens 10, the 5 inner connate into a central column, the 5 outer free. 

 Ovary 3-celled, 1 ovule in each cell. Capsule ovoid, 1 in. long, 3-ceUed, 3- 

 valved with 3 dark brown or black seeds. Indigenous in tropical America ; cul- 

 tivated in most tropical countries and naturalised in India. Common at the 

 foot of the hills in Oudh and Kamaon — Vern. Safed ind (Madden). The oil of 

 the seed {English Physic Nut) is a strong purgative (Pharm. Ind. 203). 



Givotia rottleriformis, Griff. ; Wight Ic. t. 1889 ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 285, a 

 middle-sized tree, young shoots, inflorescence, and under side of leaves densely 

 grey-tomentose with stellate hairs, leaves alternate, broad-ovate or rotundate 

 with cordate base, crenate. Flowers dioicous, in axillary slender panicles, calyx 

 nearly to the base 5-cleft, petals alternating with the sepals in both male and 

 female flowers. Fruit fleshy indehiscent, 1-seeded. Mysore and Dekkan. Wood 

 soft and light, used to carve figures, toys, and the like, which are lacquered and 

 painted. 



