jiucuba.] C0ENACEJ5, 139 



smaller than the other. Female panicle pysantidal, 5 in, teng, loosely many- 

 flowered, with a few bracts at the base, 3 to 6 lines long, and covered with 

 i-usty hairs. Ovaries (as yet but little efllarged) oblongs, 3 or 4 Imes long, on 

 short thick pedicels, otherwise precisely similar in structure to those of the 

 A. japonica. Male flowers and petals of the female unknown. 



Hongkong, Harland. The single specimen I have seen is already past flower. It ap^ 

 pears very different from tie common Japanese species ; tut it is possible that a better know- 

 ledge of the plant may prove it to be a, variety only. 



Ordek lit. HALORAGEiE. 



Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, the limb entire or with as many teeth or 

 lobes as petals. Petals 3 or 4, inserted round an epigynous disk or on the 

 calyx-border,, or none. Stamens as many or sometimes fewer, inserted with 

 the petals. Ovary inferior, 1- or more celled, with 1 pendulous ovule in each 

 cell. Stigmas as many as cells of the ovary, sessile. Fruit dry and inde- 

 hiscent, 1- or more celled. Seeds solitary, pendulous, with a fleshy albumen. 

 Embryo straight, with a superior radicle and small cotyledons. — Herbs, 

 often aquatic, rarely woody at the base. Leaves opposite Or alternate or 

 sometimes whorled. Flowers small, axillary or in terminal racemes or pani- 

 cles. 



A sinall Order, widely dispersed over the globe, usually associated with Onagracea, but 

 which has recently been shown to have more affinity witii Cornaceee, from which it differs 

 chiefly in, the herbaceous habit and reduced flowers, 



1. HALOBAGIS, Fdrst. 

 (Goniocarpns, Keen) 



Calyx4ube (or oVary) terete or angular, the limb of 4 persistent lobes. 

 Petals 4, concave, deciduous. Stamens 4 to 8 j anthers long, on very short 

 iUaments. Stigmas 4, sessile. Fruit small, hard, indehiscent, 3- to 4-lobed, 

 2- to 4-celled, Embryo cylindrical. — Herbs. Leaves opposite or alternate, 

 undivided. Flowers small, solitary or clustered, in the upper axils or in ter- 

 minal racemes. 



Chiefly an Australian genus, with 3 ar 3 species, either Cast Asiatic or ranging Widely over 

 the southern hemisphere without the tropics. 



1. H. scabra, Benth. A weak, decumbent, branching herb, more or 

 less rough with minute hairs; the slender 4-angled stems from 6 in. to 1 ft. 

 long. Leaves nearly sessile, lanceolate, | to 1 in. long, with a few sen-a- 

 tures. Flowers about 1|- Imes long, almost sessile, and solitary under each 

 bract, forming , slender, terminal, one-sided racemes or interrupted spikes, 

 usually branching.into narrow panicles. Petals twice the length of the calyx- 

 lobes. Anthers 8, nearly as long as the petals, the 4 inner ones more slender 

 and apparently sterile. Stigmas short, divided at the top into a tuft of hau- 

 like lohes.-^Gonidcarpua seaber, Keen. ; DC. Prod. ui. 61. 



Common on grassy slopes, Ohampioti and others. Also in Khasia. 



