ALEURITES MOLUCCANA. (Nat. order Euphorbiaceaj.) 



AleURITES. Font. — GEN. CHAR. Monaecious. Calyx of both male and female flowers splitting rather irregularly into 2-3 valvate 

 segments, petals both male and female 5 contorted in aestivation. Male, stamens 7-22 inserted in 2-4 verticels on an erect naked column, anthers 

 introrse or rarely extrorse dehiscing longitudinally, disk urceolate, its 5 glandular lobes alternate with the petals, or with 10 lobes, rudiment of ovary 

 none. Female, disk of 5 glands free, alternate with the petals, ovary 2-5 celled, cells 1-ovuled, ovules pendulous, styles as many as the cells of the ovary 

 bifid to almost the base, fruit a large fleshy drupe with 1-2 hard bony nuts, albumen oleaginous, embryo straight the cotyledons orbicular- ovate palminer- 

 ved membranaceous, radicle very short. Trees, often with stellate pubescence, leaves alternate long petioled cordate or lobed entire or serrate often 

 biglandulose at the base, flowers in terminal panicles. Font. Char, Gen. n. 56 c. ic. 1,776. Camirium, Rumph. Dryandra, Thunb. Vermicia, Lour. 

 Telopea, Soland. Ambinux, Commerson. 



ALEURITES MOLUCCANA. Willd.) A large tree, trunk generally erect, bark smooth olive-colored, branches numer- 

 ous, young shoots covered with much stellate pubescence, leaves about the ends of the branchlets lanceolate or rhomboid ovate 

 to cordate on the large trees, often 3-5 lobed on saplings, margins often scollop-toothed, stellately pubescent when young, iu a»e more 

 glabrous but more or less silvery beneath, 4-8 inches long by 3-6 broad furnished with 2 large glands at the insertion of the petiole, 

 petioles round about as long as the leaves, panicles terminal erect much shorter than the leaves clothed with stellate pubescence, 

 flowers numerous small white, bracts subulate soon deciduous. Male, flowers terminal about 3 lines long most numerous, calyx stellately 

 pubescent splitting irregularly into 2 segments, disk dilated into 5 glands between the petals, petals liguliform subglabrous about twice 

 as long as the calyx, stamens 18-22 verticelled in 3-4 rows on the erect hemispherical column, filaments short thick hairy continued 

 up between the anther-cells at the back and not distinguishable from the connective which is produced into a small obtuse point beyond 

 the introrse cells ; female, flowers sessile in the divisions of the panicle, calyx and corol as in the male only the latter is generally pubes- 

 cent, ovary densely stellato-pubescent 2-celled, styles short, stigmas incurved acute, drupe 2-celled (sometimes only 1-celled by abor- 

 tion), fleshy roundish a little compressed, pretty smooth, somewhat pointed, slightly 4-ribbed olive colored when ripe, cells lined with a 

 firm smooth brown integument ; nuts two thick and very hard. Willd. Sp. PL vol. iv. p. 590. Jatropha Moluccana, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 

 1 p. 10(>6. Aleurites triloba, Forst Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 629. Juglaus Cammirium, Lour. 



This handsome tree is met with wild in parts of Wynad, though probably escaped from cultivation, as it is supposed to have been 

 introduced into this Presidency from the Malay Archipelago; it is much cultivated in various parts of India, and generally known in this 

 Presidency as the Belgaum Walnut. It is indigenous in many parts of the Eastern Archipelago, and is in cultivation in various parts of the 

 world ; it is very ornamental, but its timber is not, I believe, of any value; the kernels are eaten arid somewhat resemble walnuts, and they yield 

 by expression about 50 per cent, of a fine clear oil which can be used for the table as well as burning. In the Sandwich Islands a large trada 

 is carried on in this oil, and the kernels strung on sticks are employed as candles, they burn well and doioly and give a clear light. The tree is 

 well worth cultivating for ornamental purposes or shade, and it grows readily from seed, any amount of which can be procured at Manantoddy 

 in the Wynad. 



Analysis. . 



1. Male flower bud. 



2. Male flower, 



3. Male flower spread out, showing the glands of the disk alternate with the petals and the stamens 22 in 4 verticels 



on the raised receptacle. 



4. A petal glabrous. 



5. Inside view of the introrse anther with its hairy filament. 



6. Outside view of the same the filament running right up the back between the cells and not distinguishable from 



the connective, which is produced into an obtuse point beyond the cells, 

 7- Female flower bud. 



8. Female flower. 



9. Calyx and ovary. 



1 0. Ovary and its 2 deeply bifid-styles. 



11. A petal furnished with stellate pubescence. 



12. Ovary cut vertically, ovules pendulous. 



13. Ovary cut transversely 2 cells, ovules solitary. 



14. Very young fruit. (All drawn from living specimens. I have no fruit, so I have taken the description of it from 



Roxburgh.) 



276 



