Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/170

 cimens of this plant, raised with much care from seed brought from Rangoon, sent several hundred miles as one of the greatest beauty and rarity, but which, had never been seen by the cultivator in India, though he must have passed it hundreds of times. The plant is really a beautiful one and richly merited all the attention bestowed on that occasion, but would equally have merited it if brought from the neighbouring marsh, in place of from a foreign country. Methania is not very common, though widely diffused, but like some other members of the order is very variable. The M. incana when growing in a fertile soil, changes so much in appearance from what it is in a more arid one, that it no longer seems to be the same plant, and indeed I greatly doubt whether the two forms can belong to the same species, I have since the publication of our Prodromus met with a new species having much the appearance of an Abutilon, hence called C. abutiloides. It grows in rocky ravines among the Ballagaut hills, and attains the size of a small shrub.

The determination of the species of the genus Pteraspermum, is an undertaking of considerable difficulty, owing to the great variations in the form of the foliage in different specimens of the same species. In my recent excursions I have added a new species to this genus, and have reason to suspect that there are several, yet unknown to us, to be met with in our alpine jungles. I had not the good fortune to find fructification of some that I consider new, and cannot in consequence describe them, but their trailing arborious habit, leave little reason to doubt their being different from all those already described.

Kydia. a genus established by Dr. Roxburgh, and so called in honor of the late Colonel Kyd, the founder of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, consists of fine shrubs, bearing their numerous flowers in large clusters on the ends of the branches. Of this genus there is one species met with in the Pulicat jungles towards the foot of the hills, and one very fine new species in Ceylon, to which Dr. Arnott has given the name of K. angustifolia, a peculiarity by which it is well distinguished from the continental forms which have the leaves nearly round.

Other two genera are characterized in our Prodromus as belonging to the order, namely, Eriochlœna and Microchlœna. At the time of publication we expressed a doubt of the stability of both these genera, conceiving that the characters assigned by DeCandolle were insufficient to keep them distinct. Of the justice of these doubts further observation has not only satisfied me, but have even led me to doubt, whether two plants described in our Prodromus under these names form more than one species, indeed I feel almost certain that they do not, and ought to be united. These genera are made to rest on the circumstance of one having a quinary the other a quaternary series of parts, a difference of every day occurrence in different specimens taken from the same tree, and of course more likely to occur when taken from different trees, though of the same species. The following are the new genera of Sterculieœ proposed by Professor Endlicher in his Meletemata Botanica.

Tribus. STERCULIEÆ. Flores abortu diclines. Calyx e sepalis regulariter connatis, Corolla nulla. Filamenta in tubum carpophoro connexum connata. Antheræ subuni -1. biloculares curvato-oblongæ. ad ovarii perfectI 1, imperfecti basin. Fructus e carpellis legumini-formibus verticillatis, sutura interiore dehiscentibus. Semina interdum arillo obducta, albuminosa. Arbores. Folia simplicia — 1. digitato-composita, peliolo apice tumido.

PTERYGOTA. Calyx campanulatus 5 partibus carnosus, apice reflexus. Tubus stamineus masculus cylindricus elongatus calyce inclusus, apice in urceolum expansus, antheris sessilibus in 5 fasciculos coacervatis onustus, fasciculis singulis superposite-subpentandris. Tubus staminum femineus vix ullus, antheræ imperfectae in 5 fasciculos superposite coacervatae, fasciculis earpellorum sinubus oppositis. Ovaria subdistincta multiovulata. Styli subsejuncti. Stigmata dilatata radiatim posita. Fructus carpella subglobosa lon^e stipitellata polysperma. Semina ala longa cultriformi (spongiosa) terminata. — Indiæ orientalis incola, foliis cordatis integerrimis, racemis axillaribus 1. alaribus, floribus majusculis rubro tinctis.

Pt. Roxburghii (Sterculia alata Roxb.).

STERCULIA L. Calyx profunde 5 partitus patens. Tubus stamineus maris ac feminæ elongatus cylindricus, apice in urceolum 5 lobum expansus, lobis 3 dentatis, 3 antheriferis. Styli connexi abrupte recurvi. Stigmata .... Fructus carpella follicularia subsessilia pOlys-