Flora Medica

ANACARDIACEJE.Nat. syst.ed.2. p.1 66.MANGIFERA.Flowers polygamous. Calyx 5-partite, deciduous. Petals4-5, inserted under the disk, furnished on the inside with alobed glandular scale or crest : aestivation imbricative. Stamensarising from the disk : 1 (or occasionally 2) fertile, ascending,opposite to one of the lower sepals, with a subulate fleshy filamentabout as long as the style the others sterile :(usually 3 or4, sometimes more), slender, minute, tipped with a small gland.Disk thick fleshy 4-5-lobed. Ovary with its base immersed inthe disk, oblique, consisting of a solitary carpel, 1 -celled, 1-ovuled : ovule attached a little above the base to the upper sideof the ovary. Style l,from the upper edge of the ovary, curveddownwards. Stigma simple. Drupe somewhat compressed;sarcocarp fleshy; stone compressed, woody, 1 -celled, 2-valved,covered on the outside with fibrous filaments. Seed solitary.Trees. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, entire and quite entire.Panicles terminal, much branched. Flowers small. W.and A. chiefly.584. M. indica Linn, sp.pl. 290. Roxb.fi. ind. i. 641. W.and A. i. 170. (Rheede iv. 1. 1, 2.Humph. i. t. 25.) Continentand islands of the East Indies, whence it has been carriedinto other tropicalcountries.Tree of great size, with an erect trunk, covered with dark-colouredcracked bark. Leaves alternate, stalked, lanceolate, entire, often alittle waved at the margin, firm, smooth, shining, generally from 6 to 12inches long, and from 2 to 3 broad; petioles round, smooth,1 to 2inches long. Panicles terminal, erect or ascending, a little downy.Pedicels short, thick, rigid. Bracts oval, concave, a little downy.Flowers small, yellow, with some stripes of red near the base of thepetals polygamous. Sepals ; 5, oblong, concave. Petals 5, lanceolate,spreading, twice the length of the calyx. Disk very large, yellow,fleshy, of 5 concave lobes. Filament single, subulate, ascending, halfthe length of the petals, inserted between the lower lobe of the diskand the ovary. Anther oval, purple. Sterile stamens 2, 3, 4, or more,very minute. Ovary obliquely oval, 1-celled, with a single ovule attachedto the side of the cell, opposite to the fertile stamen, and under thestyle. Style from the side of the ovary, the length of the stamen,subulate, incurved. Drupe oblong or kidney-formed, a little compressed,fleshy, smooth, when ripe, yellow in; general about as large as a goose'segg. Stone of the same form as the drupe, but more compressed, coveredwith a ragged fibrous coating, woody, 1-celled, 2-valved. The drupeis to the inhabitants of India what the peach is to Europeans the most;281