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cracks, exfoliating in rectangular woody scales. Wood dark, reddish-brown, tough, hard, close-grained ; heartwood small. Branches spreading, rigid, twiggy, smooth or pustulate. Foliage bright-green. Leaves coriaceous, orbicular, broadly ovate or elliptic; tip rounded or retuse, glaucous beneath, 1¼-4 by 1½-3in., pale when dry, loosely reticulate, young, membranous and faintly pubescent beneath, old 4-8 pair, spreading, very slender ; petiole ¼in. Flowers yellowish-green, in small axillary, silky clusters ; calyx-lobes lanceolate, or ovate-lauceolate. Calyx ¼in. male, pulvinate, of female conical with a thick margin. Ovary quite glabrous, globose, styles free thick ; stigmas fleshy, lobed. Capsule -¾in., obscurely 3-lobed, woody sessile ; rarely 4-lobed, dark-brown, shining and wrinkled when dry, top not lobed. Seeds 3, 1/6in. diam., globose chestnut-brown ; albumen scanty.

Uses : — The bark or outer crust of capsule said to be exceedingly poisonous (O'Shaughnessy.)

In Chutia Nagpur the fruit and bark are employed to poison fish ; the latter is also considered a useful application in cutaneous diseases. For severe headache, the head and upper part of the body are bathed in water in which the leaves have been steeped (Revd. A. Campbell.) An extract of the leaves and fruit acts as a violent gastro-intestinal irritant.

Vern. :— Kurkni, gurguli, kurkuli (Pb.).

Habitat : — Central and Western Temperate Himalaya, from Nepal westwards to Murree.

A small shrub with slender branches. Young shoots, petioles, and underside of leaves hairy. Wood white, moderately hard-grained. Leaves l-2in. long, ovate-oblong, obtuse or mucronate, pale when dry, nerves very slender. Petiole filiform, ¼-¾in. Flowers fin. diam., monoecious, axillary on long, filiform pedicels, ½-1½in long. Calyx segments obovate, acute, enlarged in fruit. Petioles keeled, spathulate ; disk of 5 flat, bifid, membranous glands. Fruit ¼in. diam., depressed, globose,