APODYTES BENTHAMIANA. (Nat. order OlacineEe.) 



APODYTES. E. Meyer. — GEN. CHAR. Calyx small 5 toothed or partite, petals 5 bypogynous free valvate glabrous or subglabrous, stamens 

 as many as and alternate with the petals free or very shortly adherent to their base, anthers linear to lanceolate oblong or sagittate, ovary 1-celled, style 

 filiform more or less oblique, stigma small, ovules 2 pendulous sub-superposed, drupe baccate obliquely ellipsoidal or rounded sometimes bearing on one 

 side a fleshy appendage, nut crustaceous or woody, seed 1 pendulous, with a small embryo near the apex of the fleshy albumen. Trees or Bhrubs, leaves 

 entire alternate penniveined, flowers in terminal panicles or axillary fascicles. — Raphiostyles, Planch? Notbapodytes, Blame. Mus. Bot. 1. 248. 



APODYTES BENTHAMIANA. (Wight.) A middling sized tree young parts minutely aureo-pubescent, branches terete 

 glabrous, leaves alternate coriaceous glabrous (turning quite blaok in drying) oblong elliptic obtuse at both euds 3^-4 inches long by 

 liV broad, petiole f-l£ inches long, panicles terminal contracted rigid shorter than the leaves slightly pubescent, bractes minute or 

 wanting, flowers white 3 lines long, calyx minute 5 toothed slightly pubescent as is the pedicel, petals elliptic inflexed at the point, 

 stamens the length of the petals, anthers pubescent on the front face and sides, basifixed linear obtuse, deeply sagittate at the base, 

 ovary glabrous ovate, style lateral straight, stigma inconspicuous truncated, drupe semi-ovate reniform crowned with the persistent 

 base of the style and famished with a lateral scutellifonn appendage. Wight Icov.es tab. 1153. A. Gardneriann. Miers. Ann. and Mag. 

 of Nat. Hist, series %, vol. ix. p. 389. 



Vary- o. Leaves coriaceous obtuse at the apex, panicles short rigid. 



Var^ /3. Leaves membranaceous, broader than in var. a. with a long narrow aeumination at the apex terminating in a sharp 

 or obtuse point, panicles lax and much larger than in variety a. 



Variety a. — Nilgiris, Anamallays, Travancore, Tinnevelly hills and Ceylon, elevation 5000-7500 feet. Vary /2. northern 

 slopes of the Nilgiris, Travancore (Myhendra coffee estates,) elevation 3,000 feet. The 2 varieties have a very different appearance, and 

 I long thought them distinct, but a careful analysis of the flowers shows no difference, aud variety /3. may I think be safely considered 

 only a lower level more membranaceous form, it is a much handsomer tree than the variety found at higher elevations. The figure is 

 taken from living specimens of var. a gathered on the Nilgiris. 



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