502 LXXV. GNETACEiE. {Ephedra. 



et Meyer. Arab. Alte. Vern. Kuchan, nikki (small), kurltan, hratta, 

 tandala, lastuk, nangarwal, Pb. 



A shrub with slender flaccid, generally whorled branches ; branchlets 

 often filiform, with numerous raised longitudinal lines, often rough with 

 short hairs, internodes 1-4 in. long, sheaths very short, with two tri- 

 angular or linear teeth longer than sheath, often prolonged into narrow 

 linear leaves. Male spikes sessile, in lateral or terminal, often whorled 

 clusters ; anthers 2-5, sessile. Female spikes pedunculate, solitary or in 

 pairs ; tube of inner sheath exserted, truncate or indistinctly 2-lobed. 

 Fruit ovoid, succulent, tasteless, ^ in. long, red when ripe. 



Plains of the Panjab and Sindh, ascending in the Salt range to 3000 ft. Af- 

 ghanistan, Persia, Arabia, Aden, Sinai. Madden, As. See. Joum. xvii. i. 404, men- 

 tions an Ephedra in Rajputana (Vern. Phoh, generally the name of Galligonvm 

 polygonoides) ; if an Ephedra, it probably is this species. Somewhat gregari- 

 ous, forming dense clumps of low brushwood in the most arid, sandy or stony 

 places ; branches brown or somewhat glaucous, often scandent on other trees. 

 Fl. March, April (sometimes in October) ; the fruit ripens in May, and is often 

 long persistent. Bark brown, bunches of stem and branches axe sometimes used 

 for cleaning brass dishes. 



E. alata, D"'^- ; DC. Prodr. 358, is a much larger shrub, 9-10 ft. high, with 

 stifif erect branches, marked by having bracts and sheath of female flowers with a 

 broad white membranous margin, the inner sheath of the female flowers nearly 

 2-partite to the base, and 3-8 subsessile anthers on a long-exserted column. 

 Deserts of North Africa, from Algeria to Egypt, Siaai, Persia.' — ^Aitchison (Cat. 

 142) quotes " Edgeworth, Multan." I have not seen specimens ; Edgeworth in 

 Florula MaUica Joum. Linn. Soc. vi. 194, enters E. alata (without auth.), 

 which may possibly be intended for E. alata, Schimp., a synonym of E. Alte. 



Ghnetmn scandens, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 518 — Syn. G. edule, Blume ; Vern. 

 Kwmhal, umhli, Bombay — ^is a stout climbing shrub, with opposite coriaceous 

 elliptic - oblong petiolate leaves, 5-6 in. long, which turn black in drying ; 

 flowers monoicous in cylindric verticiUate, paniculate spikes, with numerous 

 short annular sheaths, the flowers mixed with articulate hairs closely packed in 

 their axUs. Male flowers monandrous, anthers of 2 distinct cells, opening by ^ sMt 

 at the apex, at the end of a thick column, protruding from a thick clavate angular 

 sheath, which splits in two. Female flowers consisting of numerous naked ovules 

 similarly arranged, and mixed with articulate hairs. Fruit an oblong 1-seeded 

 drupe, \-\\ in. long, narrowed into a thick short stalk, red when ripe. The 

 seeds are eaten. Common in the dense forests of the Western Ghats and 

 the Konkan — ^East Bengal, Burma, Indian Archipelago, China. The wood 

 of Gnetum consists of a large number of distinct wedge-shaped ligneous masses, 

 which are arranged in concentric circles, and separated by celliuar tissue. It 

 thus resembles the wood of Menispermacecs (p. 10). 



Order LXXVI. CONIFER.ffi. 



Shrubs or trees, generally evergreen and resinous. "Wood without 

 vessels, hence on a horizontal section without pores, consisting of medul- 

 lary rays and long thiok-waUed wood-cells, tapering at the ends, with 

 circular discs (lenticular cavities between the walls of adjoining cells), on 

 the sides parallel to the rays ; in the wood of roots on all sides. The tur- 



