PROTIUM CAUDATUM. (Nat. ord. Burseracefe.) 



PEOTIUiM, Wight and Arnot. — GEN. CHAR. Flowers polygamous, calyx small tubular 4 cleft or dentate, lobes valvate ; petals 4 erect, with the 

 apex recurved and the tips incurved, linear oblong slightly imbricate at the sides with the tips incurved in sestivation ; disk urceolate 4 lobed lining the bot- 

 tom of the calyx, margin free, stamens 8-10 inserted below the margin of the disk on the outside alternately shorter, erect free shorter than the calyx in the 

 fertile flower, much longer than the calyx in the sterile flower, the longer ones rising from the back of the lobes of the disk and the Bhorter ones from or be- 

 hind the sinuses ; ovary sessile 2-4 celled, style very short or obsolete, stigma 3-4 lobed, ovules 2 in each cell collateral pendulous from the apex of the axis, 

 drupe fleshy globose, sarcocarp at length 4 valved with 1-4 bony 1 seeded pyrenes which are connate at first but at length separating, seed oblong, testa 

 membranaceous, cotyledons membranaceous contortuplicate, radicle superior. Small trees without thorns, bearing resin ; leaves alternate towards the apex 

 of the branches, 3 foliate or unequally pinnate, panicles long peduncled crowded towards the apex of the branches, flowers small. WA. Prod. p. 176. 

 Protionopsis, Bl. Mus. Bot. I. 229. 



irEOTIUM CAUDATUM. (WA.) A middling sized tree, bark very smooth and of a bright green color, leaves alternate 

 about the extremities of the branches 3-foliate or unequally pinnate, 3-6 inches long, leaflets 1 to 5 pair with an odd one, quite 

 glabrous on both sides, from broadly ovate to lanceolate with a long terminal sharp acumination, about 2 inches long by |-1 inch 

 broad, petiolules 2-4 lines long, panicles fascicled supra axillary from the young shoots ; about equal in length to the young leaves but 

 shorter than the adults, 2-3 times dichotomous, lax, furnished with filiform apiculate bracteoles (2-3 lines long) at the base of the ramifi- 

 cations ; petals reflexed but with an incurved tip at the apex, stamens 8 alternately shorter inserted below the margin of the disk on 

 the outside, shorter than the calyx in the fertile flowers, much longer than the calyx in the sterile, the anthers of the shorter filaments 

 apiculate the others rounded, ovary oblong 2 celled, ovules 2 in each cell collateral pendulous from the apex of the axis, stigma subses. 

 sile 3-4 lobed, in the male flowers there is a small abortive ovary with a 3 lobed sessile stigma, drupe the size of a small sloe. WA. 

 Prod, p. 176. Sfr, fl^4". JL-^i - A J*A 



This green barked tree is common in most of our dry subalpme jungles on both sides of the Madras Presidency, and is found in Ceylon 

 all over this Presidency ; it is very common as an avenue tree, and a very bad one it makes, as it is bare of leaves for some months towards the end 

 of the cold season and beginning of the hot, the young leaves appearing with the flowers in March. It is curious that it is not mentioned by Roxburgh 

 as it is so abundant in some parts of the Northern Circars ; it is called Kondd Udmidi in Teligu and Kilevay in Tamil ; the whole tree is very 

 odoriferous, the leaves and bark having a strong grateful fragrance something like mangoes. The tree grows most readily from large cuttings, which 

 is the reason it is so often employed for avenue purposes ; the ivood is said to be worthless. 



The figure is from a drawing executed in the Ceylon Herbarium, and represents fertile flowers. My S. Indian specimens quite tally, except 

 that the leaflets are broader and fewer in number, the stigma generally (always?) 3 lobed, and the ovules pendulous instead of ascending ; the latter 

 difference is an error of the Ceylon artist. I have added (figure A.) dissections of the male flower taken from fresh specimens collected in this Presidency. 



The South Indian species of Protium and the S. Indian Balsamodendron, must be placed under the same genus ; the flowers only differ 

 in the former having a 4 lobed disk and the latter a 6 S-crenated disk, and there is no difference in the fruit ; the 2 species of Protium are unarmed 

 with long peduncled panicles- Balsamodendron is armed, and has almost sessile inflorescence, but this would not constitute a generic distinction, and 

 the genus Protium of WA. must lapse. 



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