26 XI. DIPTEROCARPAEAE [Shorea. Order XI. DIPTEROCARPEAE Trees (one genus of climbing shrubs), usually resinous, with alternate penniveined simple leaves. Flowers regular, bisexual. Calyx-tube cam-panulate, free or connate with the torus or ovary, 5-lobed; lobes imbri-cate, persistent and generally enlarged when the fruit ripens. Petals 5, twisted, united at the base, or free. Stamens free, either 10 or 5 in one series, or 15 in two series, or indefinite and multiseriate, inserted on the torus. Ovary sessile with a broad base on, or partly immersed in, the torus, 3-celled, rarely 1-or 2-celled. Fruit free, or enclosed in the en-larged calyx, with 1, rarely 2 seeds. Seed large, exalbuminous.--Gen. Pl. i. 189; Royle Ill. 105; Wight Ill. i. 85. To this family belong the Wood-oil trees (Dipterocarpus) of Burma, the Indian Coapl-tree (Vateria Indica) of the Western Ghats, and the Lac-tree (Shorea laccifera) of Mysore. 1. SHOREA, Roxb. Calyx-tube short, adnate to torus, all egments enlarged into long wings when in fruit. Stamens indefinites (rarely 15), connective subulate, over-topping the anthers. Ovary 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell. Fruit cori-aceous, indehiscent, tightly enclosed by the base of the calyx-segments. Seed 1, ovoid; cotyledons fleshy. 1. S. robusta, Gaertn.-Tab. IX.-Roxb. Cor. Pl. t. 212; Fl. Ind. ii. 615; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 4; Hook. Fl. Ind. i. 306. The Sal tree.-Sans. Sala, asvakarna. Vern. Sal, sala, salwa, sakhu, saku, sakher. Local names: Sarye, sarei, rinjal, gugal, C.P.; Koroh, Oudh. A large tree, young branches, petioles, young leaves and inflorescence hoary or pubescent. Leaves glabrate, shining when full grown, 4-8 in. long, petiolate, broad-ovate, from a rounded or cordate base, entire, more or less acuminate, ending in an obtuse point; stipules caducous. Flowers yellowish, shortly pedicellate, in unilateral racemes, arranged in long, compound axillary panicles; inflorescence, calyx, and outside of petals clothed with soft grey pubescence. Segments of calyx enlarged in fruit into 5 unequal, obtuse, oblong or spathulate wings 3-4 in. long, contracted above the base, brown, with 10-15 parallel longitudinal veins and fine reticulation between. Petals (at the time of flowering) 4 times the length of calyx, orange inside. Stamens 25-30 or more, anthers pilose at the apex, style subulate. Fruit ovoid, acuminate, 1/2 in. long, hoary. The area at present occupied by the Sal tree, forms two irregular, but fairly-defined belts, which are separated by the Gangetic plain. The northern or sub-Himalayan belt extends from Assam to the Kangra valley in the Panjab. Within these limits Sal forms extensive forests, skirting the foot of the hills and entering into the Doons and valleys, ascending in places o 3000 ft. Near the western end of this belt the Sal forests are less extensive, and they termi-nate near the Bias river in a number of scattered patches of limited area. West of the Ganges the Sal is not found in the plains; but in Rohilkhand, Oudh, Gorakhpur, and Bengal, Sal forests exist, or existed formerly, at a consi-derable distance from the hills. The second, or central Indian belt, occupies the hilly country of Behar, Rewah, Chota Nagpur, Midnapur, and the Meikal.