HARPULLIA IMBRICATA. (Nat. order Sapindaceffi.) 



HARPULLIA, Roxb. — GEN. CHAR. Flowers regular, polygamous. Sepals 4 or 5. Petals as many, without any scale, but sometimes 

 with inflected auricles at the base of the lamina. Disk inconspicuous. Stamens 5 to 8. Ovary 2-celled, with 1-2 ovules in each cell ; style short, or elongated 

 and spirally twisted. Capsule coriaceous, somewhat compressed, with 2 turgid lobes opening loculicidally in 2 valves. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, with or 

 without an arillus ; cotyledons thick. Trees, leaves pinnate; leaflets usually large, the primary veins prominent underneath. Flowers in loose terminal 

 little-branched panicles, sometimes reduced to simple racemes. Capsule usually large, red or orange-colored. — Streptostigma, Thw. Otosychium, Blume, 

 ? Blancoa, Blume. Tina, Blume. Danatophorus, Zippel. 



Harpullia eupanioides, Roxb. Fl. lnd. ii. p. 645, is a nearly allied species found in North India ; it differs chiefly in the ovary being only 

 1-celled, in its large entire aril, and bifid stigma ; it is called Harpulli in Chittagong. 



HARPULLIA IMBRICATA. (Blume.) A large tree, uiuch branched, young parts petioles and panicles slightly velvetty 

 pubescent, leaves alternate abruptly pinnate 10-16 inch long, leaflets 3-5 pair generally alternate sometimes opposite or sub-opposite 

 membranaceous, penuiveined (primary veins inconspicuous above, prominent beneath) entire ovate from generally an oblique base, to 

 oblongo ovate acute or acuminate, generally glabrous on both sides except the costa beneath, but sometimes the costa above and primary 

 veins beneath are pubescent, 2-7 inches long by 1-2^ broad, petiolules 2-3 lines long, panicles lax, flowers green, in the hermatbrodite 

 ovary hairy, cells 2-ovuled, stigma generally twisted, sometimes entire or sub-entire, stamens included ; in the male, stamens much 

 exserted. Capsule glabrous 2,-2\ inches broad |- or less than \ that in length, bright orange in color, 2 lobed depressed between the lobes 

 and apiculate with the remains of the style, lobes much inflated, generally 2 (sometimes 1) seeded, seed black furnished with a small aril, 

 seldom more than 1 in each capsule coming to maturity. — Otonychium imbricatum, Bl. Rumpkia. iii. 180. Streptostigma viridiflorum, 

 Thw. in Hoolc. Journ. of Bot. vol. vi. p>. 298. t. 9A- 



This very beautiful tree is common in the western moist forests of this Presidency from Canara down to Cape Comorin, and it ascends the 

 mountains to about 350,0 feet elevation ; token covered with its brilliant orange fruit it is a beautiful sight on the ghats in Malabar and Canara ; 

 it is also found in Ceylon.' 1 have never seen the stigma so much twisted in the Indian plant as it is in the Ceylon one ffg. A is a drawing 

 of a flower by Dr. Thwaites from a Ceylon specimen J, and it is sometimes not at all twisted ; the tree flowers in the cold season and ripens its 

 fruit in March aiid April. I knoio nothing of the timber. 



A nalysis. 



1. A male flower showing tbe exserted starneus. 



2. Hertnathrodite flower. 



3. Same, petals removed and calyx opened out to show disk, stamens, ovary and twisted style. 



4. Hermatbrodite flower, petals removed, showing a style not twisted. 



5. A petal. 



6. Anthers, front and back view. 



7. Ovary cut vertically, showing the 2 superposed ovules in each cell. 

 S. . The same cut horizontally. 



9. A fruit. 



10. One of the valves of the capsule showing 2 seeds with their small arils (the other 2 seeds adhering to the other valve.) The 

 three lower leaflets on the left side of the branch represent the upper surface, the other leaflets with more prominent 

 primary veins the lower surface ; the flowering branch is from a hermatbrodite tree. 



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