384 FICOIDEM. [Begonia. 



Styles 3, nearly separate, divided near the top into 2 carved liranches, 

 persistent. Caps ale fin. ; wings e early equal. Seeds slender, cylin- 

 dric. 



Detra Dun (Dnthie) and Siwalik range (Royle). DiSTRiB. Punjab Hima- 

 laya to Sikkim, up to 7,0C0 ft. Very common on rocks, and flowering 

 during the rains. 



The Pricly Pear (Opuntia Dillenii, Haw.), belonging to the natural order 

 Cactece, should be briefly mentioned here, as it has become completely 

 naturalized within the area and in other parts of India. It is a native 

 of S. America and was probably introduced into India by the Portu- 

 guese. Its chief value is derived from a dye (cochineal) produced by 

 the puncture of a species of coccus, which must have been introduced 

 into India along with the original plants. An interesting account of 

 this dye and of the efforts made to secure superior kinds of the coccus 

 insects will be found in the Dictionary of the Economic Products of 

 India. See also Brand, For. Fl. 245. Its vernacular name is Nagphana 

 (snake's hood). The plant has been much used for hedges, and in former 

 years chiefly as a means of defence. It spreads rapidly, especially on 

 waste barren land. The fruit as produced in India is very inferior to 

 that obtained in Europe and America ; it is much eaten, however, by the 

 poorer classes of people diiring times of scarcity. The succulent stems 

 and leaves, after removal of the spines, are said to form an excellent 

 rsupplementary food for cattle. 



LVI.— FICOIDEJE. 



Herbs. Leaves simple, often fleshy, usually opposite or whorled ; 

 stipules or scarious Floioers usually in cymes or clusters rarely 

 solitary, regular, hermaphrodite rarely polygamous. Calyx of 4-5 

 segments, united into a tute or nearly distinct, free from the ovary 

 in the Indian genera, often persistent. Petals usually wanting or 

 small. Stamens perigynous or hypogynous, few or many, stamniodes 

 sometimes present. Ovarq usually free, 2-5-celled, syncarpous (ex- 

 cept in Gisekia) ; styles as many as the carpels ; ovules many in 

 each carpel and axile, or solitary and basal. Fruit usually capsular, 

 splitting dorsally or circumsciss, more rarely of separate cocci. Seeds 

 many or 1 in each carpel, usually reniform, compressed ; embryo 

 curved or annular, surrounding the farinaceous albumen. — Species 

 about 450, chiefly African. 



This order as here presented is, as Dr. Trimen remarks in his Flora of 

 Ceylon ii, 267, a somewhat ill-defined one. The arrangement of the 

 genera in Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenf. Vol. Ill, part i, b. is in many 

 respects a better one, in that it brings into closer relation the Phytol- 



