Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/207

Rh Species of two, of the three genera referred to this section are found in India. Of Clyera one species is found on the Neilgberries, one in Ceylon, and three in Nepaul, One species is referred with doubt to the genus Freziera by Wallich, which he suspects may prove a Camellia, whether or not this conjecture is well founded, it is imposible for me to say, but as all the other members of the genus are from America, it is more than probable this is not one.

"Tribe 4th. — . — Calyx deeply 5-parted, furnished with 2-3 bracteas. Petals alternating with the sepals, more or less connected together at the base. Stamens numerous, adhering to the base of the corolla. Anthers incumbent, inserted by the back, not adnate. Styles 3-5, distinct from the ovary. Seeds wingless. Albumen fleshy."

Two genera are referred to this tribe Saurauja and Apatelia the former, nearly, altogether of Asiatic, the latter of American origin. Of Sauranja Wallich enumerates 4-continental species, and one from Penang : Blume has no fewer than 9 from Java alone. None have yet been found in the Peninsula.

"Tribe 5th. — — Calyx bractless of 3-5 sepals, sometimes 5-parted. Petals usually 5, distinct. Stamens numerous, free, or connected at the base. Anthers adnate or versatile. Styles equal in number to the cells of the ovary, joined in 1, crowned by many stigmas. Fruit 3-5 celled. Albumen fleshy or wanting. Seeds compressed or winged, rarely cochleate."

To this tribe, the largest of the order, only one Indian genus is referred, namely Corklospermum, which was long supposed, on account of the woolly covering of its seeds to be a Bombax, whence, the only species found in this part of India had received the name of B. Gossypium, under which name, it is well described in Roxburghs Flora Indica.

"Tribe 6th. — — Sepals 5, free, or joined together at the base. Petals usually connected at the base. Stamens numerous, monadelphous at the base. Anthers ovate, oscillatory. Styles 5, distinct or connected. Carpels 5, capsular, few or many- seeded, sometimes distinct, sometimes connected into a single fruit, with a dissepiment in the middle. Albumen wanting. Embryo straight, with an oblong radicle, and leafy cotyledons, which are wrinkled and plaited lengthwise, with an inconspicuous plumule."

DeCandolle refers this tribute with a doubt,, to the order, but Cambessedes who reexamined the whole order seems to have no doubt on the subject, as he retains in his enumeration all the genera referred here by DeCandolle. Of these Gordonia is the only one found in India, and of it Wallich has 9 species one only from the Peninsula. I have since found another at Courtallum, and have one from Ceylon.

"Tribe 7th. — — Sepals 5-9. Petals 5-7-9, usually cohering at the base. Stamens numerous, monadelphous, or polyadelphous at the base. Anthers versatile, 2-celled. Styles 3-5, connected at the base. Fruit 3 celled, 3 valved, few seeded ; valves with a dessepiment in the middle (loculicidal dehiscence) or bent in at the margins so much as to form dessepinients (septicidal dehiscence.) Albumen wanting."

This tribe forms in DeCandolle's Prodromus, a distinct order, including two genera Camellia and Thea. These genera have hitherto been kept distinct on account of a supposed, difference in the dehiscence of their fruit : the one Camellia being said to have a loculicidal dehiscence, that is, the valves splitting along the back, midway between the septa or partitions which then form a projection in the middle of the valves ; the other Thea,& septicidal dehiscence, that is, the partitions themselves splitting These septa being composed of two inflexed cohering laminae, often separate, at the period of maturity, and form two thin marginal partitions between the cells of the capsule.

The researches of Mr. Griffith with species of both genera in all states of fructification before him, have convinced him, that there is not the least foundation for the distinction which has here been attempted to be established : the dehiscence of both being valvate and the fruit a 3-celled capsule, in short that Camellia and Then, form bat one genus. Cambessedes, who, recently wrote a monograph of the order, and, as above remarked, came to the conclusion that