PHYLLANTHUS EMBLIOA. (Nat. order Euphorbiacese.) 



PHYLLANTHUS. Linn.— GEN. CHAR. Flowers monacious or rarely disecious, ia axillary clusters or solitary. Perianth segments 6 

 or rarely 5 or 4 in the males, imbricate in the bud, in 1 or 2 rows. Disk prominent and entire or lobed, or consisting of small distinct glands. Male 

 flowers : stamens 3, rarely 2 or 5, united in a central column or free. Female flowers : ovary 3 celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Styles free or united 

 at the base, more or less 2-lobed. Capsule separating into 2 valved cocci or loculicidally dehiscent. Herbs, shrubs, or trees. Leaves alternate, entire, 

 usually small and distichous, giving the smaller branches the appearance of pinnate leaves, in some American species wholly wanting. Stipules small, 

 usually persistent. Flowers small, 



PHYLLANTHUS EMBLICA. (Lien.) A good sized tree wholly glabrous or the smaller branches pubescent, leaves alter- 

 nate remarkably distichous linear oblong mucronate glabrous about £ an inch long by 1J lines broad, petioles scarcely J a line long, 

 stipules small scarlose, margin lacerated ; male, flowers very numerous axillary or below the leaves on pedicels about 1 line long, 

 perianth segments 6, less than one line long, glands small round 1 between each of the segments of the perianth at the base inside, 

 authers 3-5 oblon» erect on a short columu which is formed by the conjunction of the filaments ; female, flowers mixed singly 

 with the males, perianth as in the male, disk cup-shaped half or more than half covering the ovary jagged round the apex and often 

 more or less 3-cleft, style with 3 thick recurved 2-lobed branches, the lobes again bifid, fruit globose succulent smooth 6-striated about 

 1 inch or a little move iri^diameter with a hard 3-celled nut which is tardily dehiscent. Boxb. Fl. Ind. iii. p. 671. Emblica officinalis. 

 Gcertn. Dichelactina, Hance in Walp* Ann. iii. 376. 



This valuable limber tree is most abundant in almost every dry jungle and forest throughout the Presidency, particularly about the 

 lower slopes of mountains, which it ascends to rather over 4000 feet elevation ; it is also found in Ceylon, Bengal, Birmah, and Malacca, China, 

 Java Borneo and Japan, and it is often cultivated in native gardens and about temples. It is called ^Amld in Rindoslanee and Oosree in Teligu, 

 and Nelli in Tamil, the fruit is eaten and made into tarts and pioMed, raw they are very acrid but excellent to cheio to keep off thirst ; the wood is 

 hard fibrous, and flexible, tolerably close and straight grained, of a red color and durable, unseasoned a cubic foot weighs 58-62 lbs. and when 

 seasoned 46 lbs., and its specific gravity is '736, it is remarkably durable under water, on which account it is much in use for well rings ; it is also 

 much used for building purposes, furniture, gun stocks, and many other purposes, and is adapted for tur ning ; the bark is strongly astringent and is 

 used for tanning, and as a ewe in diarrhoea ; in the Bombay Presidency the tree is called Awla. 



Analysis. 



1 . A flowering branch magnified. 



2. A leaf and stipule magnified. 



3. A male flower bud, sepals imbricate. 



4. A full male flower showing the glands in the sinuses at the base of the segments. 



5. The column of stamens removed from the flower, 3 anthers (there are sometimes 4 or 5.) 



6. The same opened out (it easily separates), showing that the column is formed by the adhesion of the filaments and 



that the anthers are fixed by the centre of the back. 



7. Anthers, front and back view. 



8. Female flower showing the style with its 3 recurred branches. 



9. The same fully open showing the cup-shaped lacerated disk- 



10. Disk opened out showiug the ovary. 



11. Ovary cut vertically, ovules attached to centre of axis. 



12- Ovary cut transversely, 3 cells with 2 collateral ovules in each. (All drawn from living specimeus.) 



258 



