POLYSCIAS ACUMINATA. (Nat. order Araliacece.) 



POLYSCIAS. Forsl.— GEN. CHAR. Margin of the calyx truncate or repando-dentate, petals 4-8 valvate free or cohering at the apex, 

 etamens as many as the petals, filaments short, anthers ovate or oblong straight or recurved, disk plane or rarely subcorneal ; ovary 4-8 celled, styles 

 distinct or rarely connate in a cone at the base, at length recurvo-patent introrsely stiginatose above. Fruit subglobose, ribbed when dry, exocarp fleshy; 

 pyrenes coriaceous or crustaceous, seeds compressed, albumen not ruminate. Trees or shrubs, glabrous, leaves pinnate, stipules rather conspicuous or 

 none, flowers in umbels, heads or racemes, bracts scale-like or none, pedicels articulated below the flower. Font. Char. Gen. 63. t. 32. Botryopanax, Miq. 

 Gastonia, Seep, (not Comm.) Grotefendia, Seem. Jour. Sot. ii. Eupteron, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. Hedera, Wight Ic. t. 1062. 



POLYSCIAS ACUMINATA. (Wight.) A glabrous tree, leaves equally or unequally pinnate, leaflets 5-7 pair with or 

 ■without an odd one, leaflets ovato-oblong to oblong with a long fine acumination, 3-4 inches long by about 1 \ inches broad, petioles 

 about 2 lines long, racemes ample panicled, umbels with a subulate bract at the base many flowered, pedicels with a subulate bracteole 

 at the base of each, articulated just below the flower, flowers 4-5 merous, petals expanding, styles distinct, fruit subglobose size of a 

 small pea. — Hedera acuminata, Wight. Ic. tab. 1062. Hedera parasitica, Don. Prod. Fl. Nep. p. 188. 



This tree is common on the Nilgiris west side at 4500-5000 feet elevation, on the Annamallays and Tinnevelly ghats at high eleva- 

 tions, and on the Ceylon mountains. 1 have never seen it parasitic. I know nothing of its timber or uses, but the former could not be of any 

 value I think. In about a dozen flowers dissected I always found only 4 styles and 4 cells to the ovary, the number of the petals being sometimes 

 4 and sometimes 5; the number probably differs, but as the 4-petaled ftoioers had 4 styles, I should have expected 5 in the 5-petaled flowers. 



A nalysis. 



1. An umbel of flowers. 



2. A flower bud. 



3. A full flower, showing the articulation at the petiole. 



4. A petal. 



5. A 5-petaled flower, petals removed. 



6. Anthers, front and back view. 



7. A 5-petaled flower, petals and stamens removed, showing the disk and 4 styles. 



8. Ovary cut vertically, showing the pendulous ovules. 



9. Ovary cut transversely, showing 4 cells. (All drawn from fresh specimens.) 



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