Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/301

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

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DeCandle has of these genera 107 for the whole world. How far these numhers will require to be modified by future experience it is not easy to say, but I suspect when all the species are well examined, and with sufficient specimens, many will be reduced, and leave the numbers, when many new ones are added, nearly the same as they now stand. This I think will prove the case because the leaves, from which specific characters are usually taken, of no set of plants I have ever examined, afford specific characters less to be depended upon than those of the genus Vitis, unless perhaps Bryonia the forms of the leaves of some of the species of which are to the full as variable.

Java according to Blume has 34 species of the order, and 5 genera. India has 4 genera in- cluding Cissus and Ampelopsis. The former of these however only differing from Vitis in having a quaternary in place of a quinary order of parts, with some difference of habit, and the latter being similarly situated, agreeing with Vitis in having a quinary order, but with the habit of Cissus, cannot be kept distinct.

The properties of the Grape whether recent or dried, not less than the products of its fermented juices, the various kinds of wine, are too well known to require to be dwelt upon here. The leaves of some, or perhaps most, of the species are acid, and some astringent, while the fruit of several are intensely acrid. The berries of the Cissus quadrangulari s, the young shoots and leaves of which are used by the native as a pot herb, are so exceedingly acrid, that it is sufficient to taste one, to cause in a short time the most insufferable sense of burning all over the mouth and fauces of several hours duration. How many more produce similar effects I confess I have not had the courage to try, having suffered so severely in that instance. Generally speaking, however, I believe it may be safely assumed, that with the exception of the Grape-viae, none of the species possess valuable properties. I have heard that the fruit of one or more species is used in this country for making vinegar, but as this product of fermentation can be procured from so many vegetable juices this application can scarcely be viewed an exception to the general rule.

The genera of this order, which are few in number, divide themselves as already observed into two tribes or sub-orders, the Leeaceae and Viniferae. Of the former Leeais the type, and indeed only certain genus, two others being placed here with a doubt, but neither natives of India; the latter is represented by Vitis including Cissus and Ampe- lopsis, which are undistinguishable by any set of marks on which even good sectional differences in any other order would be established. These therefore, Mr. Brown has very justly proposed to unite, though in this, he has not been followed by the generality of writers. Cissus has a 4-lobed calyx, with 4 petals, 4 stamens, and a 4-angled disk. Vitis and Ampelopsis have each 5 petals and stamens, with some slight differences of habit which may enable a person conversant with either to distinguish the other, but a Cissus with pentandrous flowers would at once become an Ampelopsis or Vitis according as it retained the habit of Cissus, or approached that of Vitis, and a tetrandrous specimen of either of the others, would become a Cissus. Characters so entirely dependent on number not being admitted in other families, neither ought they to be in this. The only other genus therefore referable to this section is Blume's Pterisanthes, a Java plant, with quaternary flowers, but otherwise well distinguished by a foliaceous lobately winged involucrum, with which they are furnished. Blume considers it intermediate between Cissus and Ampelopsis which it may be, if both are retained.

The discrimination of the species of this order is unquestionably difficult, and if the char- acters by which this is attempted, be taken from the foliage, the species so formed will rarely prove permanent, as there is no end to the variations of form to be met with in the same species ; nor is it easy to say which set of organs afford better characters, hence, to succeed, all must be laid under contribution as much so as in defining a genus in any other order. On this principle the specific characters of our Prodromus were constructed, and are I believe the most perfect so far as they extend (the Peninsular species) yet extant, but even with these, the discrimination of species from varieties is not always attainable. Subsequent experience, since preparing that Monagraph of the Peninsular Vitices, has not enabled me to add either new species or new marks for their more certain determination, on which account, I beg to refer to that work for all the information I myself possess respecting the species of this order appertaining to the Flora of southern India. The plates exhibit a species of each section. This