A. RADCLIFFE-SMITH

A small monoecious glabrous or slightly asperous shrub up to c. 1 m. Intermediate shoots slender, often asperous. Cataphylls. of the long shoots commonly replaced by foliage-leaves. Foliage-leaves: petiole 0.5 mm long; leaf-blades elliptic or elliptic-obovate, 3-9 x 1.5-6 mm, obtuse or rounded and mucronulate, cuneate at the base, margin slightly inrolled beneath, lateral nerves 2-5 pairs, indistinct, green above, glaucous beneath. Stipules triangular. lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm long, acuminate, cordate-auriculate on one side at the base, fimbriate to subentire, chestnut-brown. Proximal nodes usually ♂, distal ♀. Male flowers: pedicels 2 mm long, capillary; sepals 6, obovate-oblong, 1.5-2 x 0.8-1 mm, obtuse, creamy with a reddish-brown midrib; disc-glands 6, free, flat, circular, entire; stamens 3, the filaments connate at the base, but c. 2/4 free, anthers minute, didymous, horizontal, transversely dehiscent. Female flowers: pedicels 3 mm long, slender, slightly thickened upwards, extending to 5 mm in fruit; sepals 6, elliptic, 1.5 x 0.8 mm, obtuse, brownish-purple; disc annular, shallowly hexalobate, 1 mm diam., flat; ovary subsessile, hexalobate, 1 mm. diam., smooth; styles 3, 1 mm. long, free, slender, divaricate, deeply bipartite. Fruit depressed-subglobose, shallowly trilobate, 3 x 4 mm, smooth; pericarp thin, dull, black, separating from the crustaceous endocarp after dehiscence. Seeds asymmetrically or obliquely segmentiform, 2 x 1.3 x 13 mm, dark brown, with several rows of close-set darker shiny transverse tubercles on the back and each side.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: August-October.

Holotype: Nepal, Lembu, 5 Jun. 1803, Buchanan s.n. (BM).

Distribution: From North-West Frontier Province eastwards along the Himalayas to Bhutan, and also in the Khasi Hills (Meghalaya). On shady banks near water, and on limestone rocks; 4000'/1220 in. - 8000'/2440 m.