166 EHAM^JE^. [Bkechemia. 



3. BERCHEMIA, Neck,; Fl. Brit. Ind. i, 637. 



Shrubs with unarmed often scandent branches. Leaves alternate, 

 penninerved ; nerves straight, parallel. Flowers hermaphrodite, 

 polvpamons, in axillary or terminal fascicle?, or in termiual panicles, 

 usually 5-merous. Dish lining the calyx-tube, margins free. Ovary 

 sunk in the disk, but free from it, 2-celled, narrowed into the bifid 

 style. Fruit a hard or fleshy ovoid or cylindrical drupe, girt at the 

 base with the calyx-tube, 2-celled, 2-seeded. Seed linear -oblong, 

 albumen fleshy. — Species about 10, found in the tropics of Asia, 

 Africa and America. 



B. floribunda. Wall. Cat. \4256 ; Brand. For. Fl. 91; F. B. I. i, 637; 



Watt b:. D. B. laasa. Wall. ; Royle III. 169. 



A large erect or climbing shrub, or a small tree. Branches glabrous, 

 glaucous when young. Leaves 2-4) in. long, ovate or oblong, acute or 

 acuminate ; petiole f-1 in ; stipules intra-axillary, bifid. Floicers about 

 6 in a fascicle, fascicles arranged in large terminal racemose panicles. 

 Calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute. Petals spathulate. Fruit about | in. long, 

 cylindrical, purple. 



Dehra Dun and Siwalik range, often in swampy ground. Distrib. : 

 Trop. Himalaya from the Jhelam to Sikkim, Eastern Bengal and Khasia 

 Hills. Flowers May-July. 



4. RHAMNUS. Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. i, 638. 



Shrubs or trees, with sometimes spinescent brancblets. Leaves 

 alternate or fascicled, penninerved. i^/oiwe/*^ in axillary clusters, or 

 in simple or compound racemes, bisexual or polygamous. Calyx 4-5 • 

 fid, tube urceolate, lobes keeled within. Petals 4-5, or 0. Stamens 

 4-5. Dis/c thin, lining the calyx-tube. Ovary free, 3-4-celled, 

 narrowed into a 3-4-cleft style. Fruit a berry-like drupe, girt at 

 the base by the small calyx-tube, 2-4-celled, 2-4-seede(l. Albumen 

 fleshy. — Species about 70, distributed over the hot and temperate 

 regions of both hemispheres. 



Armed with spines, flowers 4-merous. 



Leaves coriaceous, alternate or fascicled . I. B. persica. 



Leaves membranous, sub-opposite or fas- 

 cicled 2. E. mrgata. 



Unarmed, flowers 5-merous . . • . 3. E. triquetra. 



1. R. persica, Boiss. Diagn. Ser. I, ii, 4 ; Fl. Or. ii, 17 ; Brand. For. Fl . 

 93 ; b\ B. I. i, 638 ; Watt E. D. Vern. Chirla (Dehra Dun). 

 A shrub or small tree, usually spinescent. Leaves shortly stalked, 



alternate, |-2 in. long, fascicled at the ends of the branchlets, ovate 



