DIPLOSPORA APIOCARPA. (Nat. order Rubiacefe.) 



DlPLOSPORA. DC— GEN. CHAR. ( alyx limb short i toothed truncate, corol-tube short, lobes 4 spreading imbricate in the bud, 

 anthers exserted, ovary 2-celled with many or rarely only 2 ovules in each cell attached to a small peltate placenta, style with 2 stigmatic lobes, fruit 

 a globular berry, seeds solitary or few in each cell. Trees, flowers in axillary clusters or loose cymes or in pairs of clusters with one terminal one form- 

 ing a short terminal panicle, stipules interpetiolar pointed with a broad base.--Discospermum, Dite. 



DlPLOSPORA APIOCARPA. (Dalz.) A large tree, polygamo-disecious, branches tetragonal, leaves glabrous ovato- 

 anceolate with a blunt acumination up to 6-7 inches long by 2-3 inches broad furnished with hollow hairy glands in the axils of the 

 veins beneath, petioles 6 lines long, stipules triangular glabrous, peduncles axillary about 2 lines long, flowers 3-8 subsessile, calyx 

 urceolate truncate subentire or minutely and irregularly toothed furnished (as are the stipules) with a gummy substance, glabrous or 

 with a few weak hairs on the outside, more or less hairy within the tube, filaments generally inserted near the apex of the tube a little 

 below the lobes, but sometimes arising from near the base, stigma with 2 spreading flat lobes, cells of the ovary 4-8 ovuled, fruit 

 globose with a circular ring-like scar at its apex, 8-9 lines in diameter, seeds flat, disk like, irregularly compressed 4-8 in each cell, 

 Bah- Hook. Kew Journ.of Bot. vol. il. p. 257. 



I have met with this tree on the Ooimbatore hills (Muti-kolam 4500 feet elevation), on the Sispara ghat {Nilgiris), and in the Wynad (2800 

 feet elevation), and Mr. Dalzell found it on the Bombay ghats ; it flowers in the rains and ripens its fruit in January. I know nothing of its 

 timber. 



A nalysis- 



1. Flower bud showing the lobes imbricate. 



2. A male flower. 



3. Corol of the same opened out to show the insertion of the stamens. 



4. A calyx. 



5. A calyx cut through vertically, showing that there is no sign of an ovary. 



6. Anther front and back view, filaments aduate to the centre. 



7. A fertile flower. 



8. Corol of the same opened out showiug 3 of the filaments inserted nearly at the apex of the tube, the 4th nearly at its base. 



9. Anthers from the same flower (quite sterile) front and back view, filament basifixed. 



10. Ovary, style and stigma. 



11. Ovary cut transversely. 



12. Ovary cut vertically. 



13. Ripe fruit showiug the circular scar at the apex. 



l-l. Trausverse section of a ripe fruit, showing the 2 cells and the numerous flat closely packed disk-like seeds. 



1 5. The other half of the fruit, the seeds removed. 



16 & 17. Vertical sections of the fruit. 



18, 10, 20 & 21. The seed and embryo. (All drawn from fresh specimens.) 



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