Thymelaeaceae
Y. NASIR
Stewart Herbarium, Gordon College, Rawalpindi.
Perennials, a few herbs or shrublets. Leaves entire, alternate or opposite, usually numerous, exstipulate. Flowers rarely solitary, in racemes, spikes or fascicles; bisexual, regular. Calyx tubular, 4-5 lobed; lobes imbricate. Petals small or absent. Stamens as many as or double the number of lobes, episepalous. Carpels 1-2, rarely more, syncarpous; ovary unilocular, with one laterally attached pendulous ovule; style simple. Fruit a berry or a drupe. Seeds solitary.
A family of 50 genera and about 500 species, mostly temperate and tropical; especially in S. Africa, Australia, Mediterranean region; less common in S. America and the Pacific Islands. Represented in W. Pakistan by 5 genera and 7 species.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under P.L. 480. To Dr. R.K. Brum¬mitt (Kew) and Mr. B.L. Burtt (Edinburgh) for their help and to Dr. B. Peterson (Goteborg) for going through the manuscript and giving valuable suggestions and supplying a list of plants from foreign herbaria for citation. We are also indebted to the Herbarium Director, Pakistan Forest Research Institute, Peshawar for the loan of plant specimens.
