IN CEYLON. 
7y 
Monoecious only .—This occurs in D. oppositifolia and D. 
acuta. 
In D. oppositifolia the female flower is usually solitary and 
at the end of a young twig. Occasionally a female flower 
occurs lower do wn in the axil of old or young leaves. When 
the flower terminates the young shoot it is usually on a 
peduncle from 5 to 20 mm. long ; when in the axil of a leaf 
it is invariably sessile and mixed with male flowers. The 
staminodes are usually four in number, alternating with the 
corolla segments ; or exceptionally eight in number, oppo¬ 
site and alternate with the corolla segments. In every case 
examined the anthers of the staminodes were barren. The 
male flowers occur in sessile or subsessile inflorescences in 
the axil of old leaves or on old twigs. Each flower possesses 
eight stamens and a rudimentary apical mass of long unicel¬ 
lular hairs in the position of the pistil of other flowers. The 
stamens are usually paired, the pairs usually alternating with 
the corolla segments. The resemblance bet ween the orienta¬ 
tion of the staminal whorl of the female flower and that of 
the stamens of the male flower is here very great, and as far 
as this whorl is concerned we may speak of the flowers as 
male or female, according to the fertile or barren condition 
of the anthers. 
D. acuta, according to Thwaites, is occasionally monoe¬ 
cious ; personally I have never been able to obtain any other 
condition, though I found it in abundance at Wewella, Weera- 
kanda, Hewessa, and Pasdun korale. The male and female 
flowers occur in clusters in the axil of old or young leaves, 
the individuals of the same cluster being of the same sex. 
As in D. oppositifolia, the female flowers occur mainly in the 
axil of the younger leaves, the male flowers being below. In 
the number and orientation of the members of the staminal 
whorl there is a tendency to variability on the male side. 
In the male flowers there may be five, seven, or nine 
epipetalous stamens, usually separate but occasionally united 
in pairs, and when the latter condition obtains the inner 
