N. 0. ANACARDIACEiE. 385 



Habitat : — Tropical outer Himalaya, from Sirmoor to Sikkim, 

 and throughout the hotter parts of India, as far east as 

 Assam (absent in the Eastern Peninsula). 



A handsome tree, 20-40ft. high ; deciduous, girth 4-6ft. 

 Bark lin thick, dusky grey ; wounds on bark yield a brownish 

 soft gum which dissolves slowly in the mouth. Wood ash- 

 coloured, reddish white or brown ; even, but open-grained ; full 

 of acrid juice, causing irritation and swelling. Leaves gener- 

 ally closely arranged at the extremities of the branchlets of 

 numerous spreading branches ; simple, alternate, very coriace- 

 ous, flat ; 9-30in. by 5-1 2in., cuneate, oblong or obovate-oblong, 

 rarely linear-oblong. Apex rounded, margins entire, cartilagin- 

 ous. Base rounded, cordate or cuneate ; surface opaque above, 

 slightly pubescent, especially when young, whitish or glaucous 

 and thickly pubescent beneath. Nerves 16-25 pair, stout, 

 slightly arched, pale whitly. Venation marked coarse on the 

 under surface. Petiole l-2in., densely puberulous ; small, 

 i-fin. diam., subsessile, fascicled in erect tomentose compound 

 terminal panicles. Bracts and bracteoles fugacious Estivation 

 imbricate. Female and Hermaphrodite flowers lfriin. long, 

 longer than the almost sessile male flowers. Calyx 5-fid. ; 

 segments deciduous. Corolla greenish white or greenish yellow; 

 petals 5, 3 or 4 times the length of Calyx, oblong, pointed at 

 the apex, inserted under the margin of the disk, sessile, glab- 

 rous, very spreading. Disk annular, broad, between stamens 

 and ovary. Stamens 5, alternate, inserted on the margins of 

 the disk ; imperfect or sterile in female flowers, equal, dis- 

 tinct ; filaments subulate from a somewhat dilated base, of the 

 length of petals. Anthers ovoid or elliptical, yellow. Ovary 

 free, sessile, one-celled, densely appressed, tawny, hispid. 

 Styles 3, divergent, incrassate. Stigma subclavate, shortly 

 2-lobed or retused . Ovules inserted at apex of the cell. Pen- 

 dulous from a basal funicle. Male flowers often on a separate 

 tree. Calyx and Corolla as in the hermaphrodite flower, but 

 smaller. Filaments 5, of the length of petals. Anthers much 

 larger than the hermaphrodites. Pistil absent or abortive. 



Fruit, a drupe, lin. long, and about as broad or fin., ovoid, 

 49 



