FILICIUM DECIPIENS. (Nat. ord. Burseraceee.) 



FlLICIUM. Thw. — GEN. CHAR. Flowers polygamous, calyx 5 parted, lobes imbricate, petals 5 small without scales imbricate, disk tomen. 

 tose 5 lobed, stameus 5 inserted on tlie diak, filaments filiform, anthers ovate-sagittate, ovary sessile globose 2 celled (sterile in the male flowers), style 

 short uncinate, stigma simple or slightly 2 lobed, ovules solitary in the cells pendulous from the apex, drupe fleshy with a membranaceous putamen 

 ] -2 celled 1-2 seeded, seed oblong, testa, membranaceous, embryo exalbuminous curved, cotyledons foliaceous plicate, radicle dorsal directed towards 

 the hilum and nearly reaching it. A tree, leaves alternate coriaceous unequally pinnate, rachis winged, flowers small white panicled. Thw. En, PI. 

 Zeyl. p. 40S. Pteridophyllum, Thw. in Hook. Kew. Joum. vi. 65. t. 1. 



FlLICIUM DECIPIENS. (WA.) Ainiddling sized tree all the young parts clothed with scurf like scales, leaves when young 

 slightly puberulous in the costa beneath, more or less scaly on both sides and slightly glutinous at length glabrous, unequally pinnate 

 10-15 inches long by 3|-7 wide, rachis interruptedly winged, the portion between each leaflet tapering at the base and truncated at the 

 apex, leaflets 6-12 alternate or subopposite pair, linear to narrow oblong tapering at the base quite entire or slightly repandulate 

 towards the apex, panicles axillary large shorter than the leaves angled ; flowers, &c. as in the generic character — Ehus decipiens, WA. 

 Prod. p. 172. 



This very elegant fern-leaved tree is found more or less throughout the Western ghat forests of the Madras Presidency and in Ceylon, 

 and has been introduced into gardens ; it is very abundant in the moist forests of the Anamallays at about 4000-4500 feet elevation and also at 

 much lower altitudes, the timber is strong and valuable for building purposes, it floioers in December and January and ripens its fruit in March, 

 in Ceylon it is called Pehimbia. 



The drawing of the branch in fruit if from a specimen collected on the Annamallays. The analysis is from a drawing by Dr. Thvmites. 

 i. o male/lower ; ii. the same petals removed ; iii. a fertile flower ovary removed ; iv. a section of a fertile flower showing the ovides and the 

 position of the stamens. 



l-B 



