2 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 



apex, glabrous, green, and shining above, covered beneath with 

 brown scales, similar to those on the young branches, pennivenous, 

 the veins very slender and included, the midrib prominent beneath, 

 6-7 inches long, 21-27 lines broad, in texture between membraneous 

 and coriaceous: petiole about 10 lines long, round, curved, and 

 thickened from below the middle upwards. Flowers somewhat um- 

 belliferous, numerous, arising from large irregularly lobed woody 

 protuberances on the larger branches, pedicellate. Pedicels cylin- 

 drical, thickened upwards, marked about the middle with the scars 

 of two deciduous bracts, covered with scales similar to those on the 

 leaves and branches, 9 lines long. Involucrum cylindrical, 2-4-lobed 

 at the apex, deciduous, covered with brown scales, about 8 lines 

 long. Calyx cylindrical, somewhat conical, 1^ inches long, A\ lines 

 broad, irregularly 5 -dentate at the apex, fleshy, covered externally 

 with brown scales, similar to those of the pedicels and involucrum, 

 and the lower two-thirds internally with scales which are also peltate, 

 but thinner, less lobed, more ciliated, and of a paler colour, the 

 upper third quite glabrous. Corolla none. Staminal tube cylindri- 

 cal, 18-20 lines long, whitish, glabrous, dividing into five portions 

 at the apex, which are linear, flattened, much acuminated, puberu- 

 lous externally, and each bearing about five shortly pedicellate 

 anthers : anthers globose, fixed by the base, entirely surrounded by 

 naked pollen grains. Pollen globose, pedicellate ! echinate. Ovary 

 superior, sessile, cylindrical, covered externally with roundish, peltate, 

 whitish scales, 5-celled. Ovules about two in each cell, superposed, 

 attached to the inner angle, ascending, anatropous. Style filiform, 

 densely covered with whitish coloured peltate, deeply ciliated scales : 

 Stigma globose, yellowish. Capsule globose, about 5 inches in dia- 

 meter, of a fibrous woody texture, densely covered with long, rigid 

 spines, rising from a broad conical base, 5-celled, 5-valved, with a 

 loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds about two in each cell, ascending, irre- 

 gularly triangular, 15-18 lines long, nearly entirely surrounded by a 

 deeply laciniated, white, fleshy arillus. Testa hard, shining, and of a 

 chestnut colour, the line of the raphe running along one side of the 

 external angle. Embryo exalbuminous : cotyledons fleshy, firmly 

 adhering to each other : radical next the hilum, retracted, inversely 

 conical, obtuse, greenish. 



