Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/215

Rh her islands, but this list I feel assured will soon be extended, now that the characters of the order are becoming better known.

Little is yet known of these. In Ceylon, it is said the leaves of Olax Zeylanica are used as pot-herbs, and as salads, whence they have received a native name synonymous, with " tree salads," a designation which does not seem limited to one plant, since I have met with a very different one in gardens about Madras, under the name of " Tree Lettuce" referable to the order Nyctagineœ, apparently a species of Pisonia. The rind of the fruit of Ximenia Americana is described as bitter and astringent, the flesh as purgative, and the kernel sweet and pleasant tasted. Roxburgh in his Flora Indica 2 fig. 253, remarks of this shrub. " The ripe fruits are eaten raw by the natives : their taste is a compound of sour and bitter, the kernels are also eaten, and taste much like fresh filberts. The wood is yellow, like sandal, and its powder is often substituted for that of sandal by the Brahmins in this part of the coast in their religious ceremonies." The nut of Balanites Ægyptiaca is covered by a quantity of soft pulp, not inaptly compared by Roxburgh to soft soap " intensely bitter, and having an offensive greasy smell." The nut itself, is exceedingly hard, and is employed in fireworks. For this purpose a small hole is drilled in it, the kernel extracted, and the shell filled with powder, when fired it bursts with a loud report. Such is the only use to which it seems to be applied in India. The authors of the Flora Senegambiæ inform us that the flowers are very fragrant, that the pulp previous to maturity is a strong purgative, having an acrid bitter taste, exciting for a long time a burning pain in the throat, but that, when perfectly ripe, it has an agreeable taste and is eat with pleasure by the Negroes. The wood which is of a yellow colour is very hard, and in Africa esteemed excellent for making furniture.

As above remarked 5 genera of this order are now known to exist in India, these are Opilia, Olax, Ximenia, Gomphandra, and Balanites, The first of these, the true place of which in the natural system was long unknown, was satisfactorily determined about the same time by Messrs. Guillemin and Perrottet, and by Mr. Arnott and myself, though we were not aware at the time that ours was that plant. Of this genus only one species has yet been found in India, Opilia amentacea Roxburgh, to which our Ximenia olacioides must be referred, as being founded on a specimen of that plant in fruit, which at the time we wrote Was unknown tous, but which I have at length succeeded in determining by comparison with specimens in fruit, taken from plants still in flower. Whether the Senegambian species (Groutea celtidifolia of the authers of that flora), be the same, I am not quite certain, but think it is distinct. Of the genus Olax, several species are found, both in India and Ceylon, Wallich in his list enumerates 10 species, but perhaps not all genuine. Ximenia Americana is common to America, the west coast of Africa and India; and is remarkable for having its stamens opposed by pairs to the petals and not alternately opposite, which is the more usual structure. Stemonurus referred here by Dr. Meisner, was established by Blume, in his Javanese Flora, and referred by him to Santalaceæ, with which it certainly does not associate so well. This genus as above remarked seems very nearly allied to, if not identical with Wallich's Gomphandra as defined by Lindley in his natural system of Botany, page 439, with this difference, that. Wallich's plant has 4 in place of 5 or 6 sepals, petals, and stamens, and unisexual in place of usually bisexual flowers. Of both these genera I now possess specimens, the former from Maulmain, and the latter from Ceylon, Courtallum, the Pulneys and elsewhere. In Gomphandra, the flowers are 4 or 5 petaled, unisexual by abortion, the male ones having rudimentary ovaries, the female ones sterile stamens. The ovaries are 1 -celled, with 2 long pendulous ovules, surmounted by a very large sessile stigma.

Professor Meisner in his tables distributes the genera under two principal sections, those with simple, and those with bifoliolate leaves. The first division is further divided into two sub-sections, those with fleshy indehiscent fruit, and those having a capsule dehising at the apex. The last sub-section has only one genus, and that referred here with a doubt, The remaining genera are then thus disposed — " Antheriferous stamens fewer than the petals — Olax, Spermaxyrum, and Fissilia. The two last are probably not distinct from the first. — Stamens more numerous than the petals without sterile ones, calyx minute, Ximenia, &c. — Stamens equalling the number of petals and hypogynous, flowers often unisexual. Stemonurus, Gomphandra, and Opilia, belong to this section, but are not placed here by Meisner,