86 
No. 162. 
Litscea zeylanica, Nees. 
(Family LAURACEvE.) 
Botanical description. —Genus, Litscea, Juss. 
Flowers dioecious. 
PerianlFsegments usually 4, equal or nearly so. 
Stamens of the outer series usually 4, perfect, of the inner series 2 perfect, without staminodia ; 
glands 4, one on each side of the 2 inner stamens ; anthers all 4-celled introrse; stamens 
in the females reduced to staminodia. 
Ovary imperfect or abortive in the males, free in the females stigma disc-shaped. 
Berry resting on the flat somewhat or scarcely dilated perianth-tube, the segments persistent or 
deciduous. Trees. 
Leaves alternate, frequently crowded and almost whorled at the ends of the shoots, usually penni- 
veined, but with few primary veins, and the lower pair more prominent so as often to appear 
triplinerved. 
Flowers in sessile or nearly sessile clusters surrounded by several very deciduous imbricate bracts. 
(B.Fl. v, 306.) 
Botanical description. —Species, L. zeylanica, Nees, frr. Cinnarn. Disput. in 
Amcen. Lot. Bonn, i, 58, t. 5. 
A large tree the branches and inflorescence quite glabrous or scarcely hoary, with a very minute 
tomentum. 
Leaves ovate-elliptical or elliptical-oblong, acuminate, contracted at the base, 3 to 5 inches long, 
glabrous and green above, white or glaucous underneath, penniveined but with few primary 
veins, the lowest pair more prominent than the others. 
Flowers in sessile clusters in the axils or at the old nodes, on pedicels of 1 to 2 lines usually 
glabrous as well as the perianths. 
Perianth-segments ovate-oblong, obtuse. 
Filaments exserted, with a few hairs about the base ; glands of the two inner ones stipitate. 
Berny globular or slightly ovoid, larger than in L. dealbata, resting on the persistent perianth-tube 
expanded into an entire or slightly angular flat disc of to 3 lines diameter, the segments 
entirely deciduous. (B.Fl. v, 307.) 
We know so little of the Australian Litsceas (and indeed of other Lauracete), 
except as herbarium specimens often examined long after collection, that I feel it 
incumbent on me to particularly direct the attention of collectors to them. If we 
know so little about them as herbarium specimens even, we know less of them as 
timbers and from other economic aspects. The flowers are not conspicuous, and 
there is a strong family likeness running through these trees, hence they are passed 
over in the forest. 
Botanical Name. — Litscea, from the Chinese, Litse, the name of L. 
chinensis, Lam. ; zeylanica, a Latin adjective indicating Ceylon. 
