HYDNOCARPUS ALP1NUS. (Nat. order BixineEe.) 



HyDNOCARPUS. (Gasrtn.) Senth. and Book Gen. PI. p. 129.— GEN. CHAR. Flowers dioecious, sepals 5 distinct much imbricated, petals 5, 

 scales 5 opposite the petals. Male flower, stamens 5-8, anthers oblong uniform fixed on to the filaments at their base, no rudiment of an ovary. Female 

 flower, staminodia 5 many, stigmas 3-6 as many as the placentas in the ovary, sessile dilated, or on very short styles, fruit large globose, pericarp woody, 

 seeds numerous with a crustaceous striated testa, albumen fleshy, cotyledons ovate foliaceous plane or subplicate. Trees, leaves shortly petiolate serrate or 

 entire, racemes axillary few flowered. Geert. Fruct. 1. 288. t. 60. 



IlYDNOCARPUS ALPINUS. (Wight.) Avery large ramous tree, 70-100 feet high, leaves alternate ovate acuminate 

 entire glabrous 4 6 inches long by 1-2 inches broad, when young red, afterwards deep green, sepals all equal reflexed. petals ovate 

 lanceolate glabrous, scales narrow lanceolate as long as (he petals ciliated towards the apex ; male, stamens 5, filaments much shorter 

 than the petals glabrous, anthers obtuse ; female, calyx, corol and stamens as in the male, but the latter sterile, stigmas 5 sessile obcor- 

 date spreading, fruit size of an apple clothed with short brown tomentura, seeds many, enclosed in white fleshy pulp, radicle elongate 

 pointing to the hilum. Wight. Ic. tab. 942. 



A very handsome tree with a beautiful foliage, common on the Nilgiris, up to nearly 6,000 feet, and on the Calead hills Tinnevelly, at an 

 elevation of 1,500 feel, and probably throughout the western ghats of Madras ; also in Ceylon, elevation 1, 500 feet, called Maratatti on the Nilgiris, 

 where the wood is much used for beams and rafters for native houses ; it answers as deal for general purposes, packing cases, &c. ; it splits readily, and 

 is a good firewood. The tree flowers in July and August. 



77 



