498 Notes on Indian Botany. 



winding up with a very brief and imperfect natural one 

 — and reduced my essential character within the briefest 

 possible limits by excluding every non-essential particular : 

 and have brought into the concluding natural one, every 

 particular which can in any way contribute to the correct 

 understanding of this curious genus. In this way, as a whole, 

 it has been extended to an unusual length, but the necessity 

 for detailed descriptions has thereby been diminished, I 

 was further induced to adopt this plan, on the supposition 

 that it is as yet a genus imperfectly known to Botanists, 

 otherwise I should have supposed that, at least, some species 

 would have been added to it in the course of the last fifteen 

 years, the time that has elapsed since the publication of the 

 4th volume of De Candolle's Prodromus. 



Lasianthus. 



Jack Linn. Trans. 14. Blume Bijdr.p. 995, Spreng. Genera, 

 p. 94. Ruh. Mem. Soc. H. N. Par. p. 210, non Lin. nee Zuccar. 

 Mephitidia Reinward. in Blume. D.C. Prod. 4, 452, G. Don 

 Gen. Syst. Gard. 3, 548. Meisner Gen, 166, Endlicher Gen, 

 p. 540. 



Calyx, limb 4-7 cleft. Corolla 4-7 cleft : throat and limb 

 usually hairy. Stamens 4-7 inserted near the throat : fila- 

 ments short: anthers oblong, scarcely exserted. Ovary crowned 

 with a fleshy disk, 2-7- celled, with a single erect ovule in 

 each : style about the length of the corolla : stigma usually 

 capitate, 2-7-lobed. Drupe globose, containing 2-7 nuts. 

 Nuts usually rugose, or furrowed on the back. Seed erect : 

 albumen fleshy, enclosing a cylindrical erect embryo. 



Shrubs or small trees. Young branches, petiols and costa 

 of the under surface of the leaves usually clothed with long 

 matted, or rigid appressed hairs. Stipules caducous, bearing 

 a ring of hairs or filiform bristle-like scales. Leaves short, 

 petioled, usually elliptic, oblong, more or less acuminated at 



