BEDDOMEA SIMPLICIFOLIA. (Nat. order Meliacese.) 



BEDDOMEA. Hook, fit— GEN. CHAR. Calyx 5-6 partite, lobes broadly ovate imbricate, petals as many orbicular, equal in size, or the in= 

 terior smaller, much imbricate : stamen-tube short or globose, crenulate at the apex, anthers 5-6 sessile at the apex of the tube partially or almost wholly 

 exserted connective very thick, cells narrow marginal at length confluent at the apex ; ovary short hirsute more or less immersed in an inconspicuous disk 

 3-celled. cells 2 ovuled ovules collateral attached to the axis at or a little above the middle, style short thick, stigma 3 lobed pyramidal, fruit coriaceous 

 oblong or ovate or subglobose often acute at the apex, more or less ribbed and densely covered with close-set scurfy and stellate tomentum, tardily dehiscent 

 2-3 celled but the partitions very thin and often obsolete, seeds 3-5 large more or leas angled exarillate, cotyledons superposed, radicle centripetal. Trees or 

 shrubs with more or less scurfy pubescence, leaves simple trifoliate or pinnate, leaflets entire, opposite or alternate, flowers in axillary panicles or racemes 

 or solitary in the axils. 



BEDDOMEA. SIMPLICIFOLIA. (Bedd.) A tree up to 3 feet in girth and 25 in height, young parts furnished with 

 scurfy scales, leaves from lanceolate to broadly elliptic more or less acute slightly scurfy when young, at length quite glabrous 3-6 

 inches Ion" by li-3J broad, veins parallel and prominent beneath, petioles |-f inch long much thickened at the apex (but not apparently 

 iointed ) flowers very variable in size from 1-|- to nearly 5 lines in diameter, panicles or racemes from much shorter than the leaves to 

 filiform and much longer or the flowers are occasionally solitary in the axils, pedicels 1-3 lines long, pubescence of the panicle and 

 calyx from densely rufo-tomentose to scurfy, flowers 5-6 merous, petals equal or subequal orbicular slightly scaly in the centre of the 

 back stamen-tube in the paniculate and racemed flowers large globose crenated at the apex the inside sometimes furnished with pro- 

 minent corrugations, anthers with a very large thickened connective, attached by their back near the apex of the tube, and 

 partly exserted ■ in the solitary flowers the staminal tube is smaller plane inside and the anthers cover the whole length of the tube the 

 apices bein°- slightly exserted, ovaries of both flowers as in the genus and furnished with ovules, fruit oblong size of a pigeon's egg 

 more or less acute, densely rusty-tomentose, 



Var^ a. racemes much shorter than the leaves, flowers large 4-5 lines in diameter, rufo-tomentose. 



Wynad, Tinnevelly hills and Travancore, 2-4000 feet. 

 Vary- p. parviflora, panicles very small not much longer than the petioles, flowers 1-2 lines in diameter, rufo-tomentose. 



Annamallay hills and Pulney Hills, 3-4000 feet. 

 Vary- y. racemosa, racemes filiform longer than the leaves, pubescence scurfy. 



Wynad, Coorg and South Canara. 

 It was only after a long acquaintance with all these forms in a growing state that I made up my mind to unite all the simple 

 leaved forms of Beddomea under one species. All the varieties occasionally have solitary axillary flowers which differ a little in their 

 anthers, but as the fruit is always solitary in the axils, it is probable that these are the only truly fertile flowers, though all the flowers 

 have ovules in the ovaries. Vary. y. resembles B. Indica in its racemes, but its staminal tube and anthers are the same as the other 

 varieties of this species. The species figured is vary. a. (from Travancore). Fig. 1 gives the front and back view of the petals. Fig. 2 

 front and side view of the anthers. Fig, 3 the staminal tube and anthers of the panicled and racemed flowers. Fig. 4 the stamen 

 tube of the solitary axillary flowers- At the top of the plate I have given dissections of the flowers of B. Indica (Hook, fil.) vide 

 Manual. A. B. and C are front, back and side view of one of the anthers. 



The different varieties are all small trees and very common throughout the Western ghat forests from Canara doivn to Cape Comorin. 



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