Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/288

146 cies from Java alone, showing how much they augment near the equator. The Peninsular flora when we wrote only presented a list of 13 species, a few have since been added.

These are of a high order and very varied character: here we find some pleasant fruits, valuable medicines, and useful timber. The fruit of Sandoricum, of some species of Lansium and of Milnea edatis, are eatable, having a watery cooling pleasant pulp; but generally, bitter, astringent, tonic qualities are the properties of this order. Some species however, are of a very different description, the juice of the bark being purgative and violently emetic. The bark of the Margosa or Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) has been beneficially employed in this country as a substitute for Peruvian bark. The leaves are every where esteemed, on account of their sanitary qualities, real or supposed, as an external application in all kinds of superficial ailments, whether the result of violence, as a bruise, cutaneous eruptions, or rheumatic pain. On the decline of small-pox it is almost invariably the practice, among the natives of this part of India, to cover the body with these leaves. From the fruit a very bitter oil is expressed. This like the olive oil is procured from the pulp of the fruit, not the kernel of the seed, and combines the bitter tonic properties of the plant, hence it is esteemed a useful anthelmintic, and is considered an excellent external application in rheumatic cases, and in some cutaneous diseases.

In the arts, the timber of the Neem tree, which is hard and durable, is found fit for ship-building, and that of some species of Melia, which attain a large size, there is reason to believe is equally valuable, though on this point my information is imperfect.

The genera of this order, which are very numerous in proportion to the number of species, are ranged under two tribes Melieae and Trichilieae. The former is distinguished by having the embryo enclosed within a thin fleshy albumen, foliaceous cotyledons, and the radicle protruded. To this division Naregamia, Munronia, Melia, Azadirachta and Malea of the Peninsular flora belong. To the latter, distinguished by having exalbuminous seed, thick cotyledons, a short radicle, commonly concealed between the cotyledons, and alternate simply pinnated leaves, with entire leaflets : Milnea, Amoora, Walsura, Sandoricum, Heynea and Xylocarpus are referable. With one exception (Munronia) all these are old established genera, and do not require further notice. Munronia first established in this work, has only three known species, one from Silhet, M. Wallichii, (Turraea pinnata, Wall.) one from Ceylon, M. pumila, R. W. Icones PI. Ind. Or. No. 91, (Melia pumila, Moon) and M. Neilgherica, from the Neilgherries and Coorg.

In habit this genus nearly resembles our genus Naregamia, so much so indeed, that. I at first supposed M. pumila a new species of that genus, and it was not until after very careful examination and comparison that I ascertained they were distinct: the principal distinguishing marks are the petals being united to the base of the staminal tube, not free, the 5 not 3-celled ovary, the superposed, not collateral ovules, and by having a membranous tube sheathing the ovary and base of the style.

Jussieu and Meisner adopt Blume's genus Aphanamixis in preference to Roxburgh's Amoora, a much older name. The former does not seem to be aware of the existence of Roxburgh's name, the latter is, and puts the question "An tamen Amoora, (Roxb.) exclusis omnibus spec, prceter A. Rohitukam, (W. and A. p. 119,) servanda, ?" in my opinion a very unnecessary question, since unless we are to depart from the old established rule of priority, which must lead to incalculable confusion, Roxburgh's name, as being the older, whatever be the number of species described under it, must be adopted in preference to a more recent one. Of this genus, under the name Aphanamixis, Jussieu enumerates three species not including either of the Indian ones, of which there are two described by Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. under the name of Andersonia : one of these was afterwards figured in the Coromandel Plants under the name of Amoora, the former name, having been in the mean time occupied by Mr, R. Brown, for a new Holland genus. Of this genus I have now three Peninsular species, namely, A. cuculata ? Roxb. A. Rohituka, W. and A. and one apparently a new species, with subsessile fruit, springing direct from the branch like figs A. ficiformis. This last I have not seen in flower, but the form of the fruit, leaves no doubt of the genus, and the absence of a peduncle either in form of panicle or spike at once distinguishes it from the other two.

These are the only additions to the order I have met with on the continent, but from