536 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



The composition of American Storax deviates so insignificantly from 

 Oriental Storax that they may be regarded as identical. The Agricultural 

 Ledger. 1904— No. 9 p. 120. 



N. 0. RHIZOPHORACE^E. 



487. Rhizophora mueronata, Lawk, h.f.b.i., ii. 

 435. 



Syn. :— R, Mangle, Willd. Roxh. 389. 



Vern. ; — Bhorar (B.) ; Upoo-punna, adair-pouna (Tel.) ; Rai 

 (Uriya) ; Kamo, kimro (Sind.) Kandel, hariya (Bomb.;. 



Habitat : — Tidal shores, from the mouths of the Indus to 

 Malacca and Ceylon. Bombay, Western Coast, Bandra (K. R. K.) 



A small, evergreen tree, of muddy shores and tidal creeks of 

 India, Ceylon, Burma and the Andaman Islands, sending down 

 numerous aerial roots into the mud of the mangrove swamp. 

 The lower part of the trunk dies early, and the tree is then 

 supported by a number of branching aerial roots, standing, as 

 it were, on stilts. Bark brown, fairly smooth, with vertical clefts. 

 Sapwood light-red ; heartwood dark-red, extremely hard, splits 

 and warps a little in seasoning (Gamble). Leaves elliptic 

 mucronate by the excurrent midrib, 3-7 by lj-4in., narrowed 

 at base. Stipules large, deciduous, enclosing the buds. Petiole 

 1-lfin. Cymes 3-5-fid, from the axils of the current year's 

 leaves. Peduncles 1-1 Jin.; " longer than the petioles," says 

 Mr. Henslow, about 3-flowered ; pedicels short, thick. Flowers 

 more or less drooping. Calyx-segments 4, irregular, narrowing 

 upwards, Jin., oblong-lanceolate, keeled within, persistent and 

 enlarged in fruit. Petals hairy within, shorter than the Calyx- 

 limb, subconnivent, coriaceous, margins involute. Anthers 8. 

 Fruit lj-2in. long, dark brown, embryo often attaining 30in. 

 before falling from the tree. " The seeds often germinate 

 while yet on the tree and drop as young plants into the mud 

 below- The roots also progress and form constantly fresh stems 

 supported by the buttressed roots standing out of the mud. 

 (Gamble). 



