Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/340

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. roid, 1-celled, 1 -seeded. Albumen ? a thin fleshy plate, closely adhering to the integument of the seed, and resembling an inner coat. Embryo straight : radicle superior, short : cotyledons fleshy. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, exstipulate, equally or unequally pinnated, without pellucid dots.

The affinities of this tribe have been already sufficiently explained.

All the species of Ailanthus are of Asiatic origin, two are natives of India, one of the Moluccas and one of China. Of Brucea the original species was found by Bruce in Africa, to whom the genus is dedicated, one is a native of India, and one of Sumatra and the Malayan peninsula, of which I have also specimens from Ceylon, but according to Moon introduced. Eurycoma, a genus doubtfully referred here, is a Malayan plant.

The bark of Ailanthus excelsa £f has a pleasant and slightly

bitter taste, and is prescribed by the native practitioners in decoction in cases of Dyspepsia"

Ainslie. In confirmation of that statement I may add that some time ago specimens of this plant were sent me, as those of a tree, the bark of which is prescribed in the Circars as a pow- erful febrifuge, and tonic in diseases of debility. The wood of this species is white and soft, that of A. glandulosa, the Chinese species, is hard, heavy, glossy, like Satin, and is susceptible of a fine polish. The tree grows rapidly in England and forms a very ornamental one. The bark of both Brucea antidysenterica and Samatrana is intensely bitter. The former is considered in Abyssinia a sovereign remedy in dysentery and diarrhoea, and Roxburgh was in hopes that the Malayan one would, from the similarity of its sensible properties, be found equally useful in the cure of these complaints. The salt called Brucine, erroneously supposed to be derived from B. antidysenterica, a most acrid and powerful poison is now ascertained to have been obtained from the bark of Nux vomica or Strychnos, all the statements therefore that have been made concerning the danger of using Brucea and Brucine, belong to Strychnos, and have nothing to do with Brucea itself. — Lindley.

In our Prodromus we expressed doubts as to whether Ailanthus malabaricus was really distinct from A. excelsa. Specimens of leaves and flowers of the latter tree, commuaicated by the late Mr. Graham, of Bombay, corresponding with Rheede's figure enable me to testify to that extent, the correctness of his representation. The mature fruit I have not seen but the ovary differs somewhat from the generic character. Ifc has three compressed distinct very obtuse carpels free from the base to the origin of the styles that is about two-thirds of their length : the styles are united throughout from the base to the apex and end in a large 3-lobed spreading stigma. It hence appears, that since the ovaries are distinct that the mature Samara can scarcely be united. In the earliest stages however, they are linear and rounded at the apex as in the plate. The specific character may be improved by the insertion of the words " ovaries 3, distinct, to the origin of the styles, rounded at the apex ; style 1, short, thick, triangular, terminating in a broad spreading 3-lobed stigma, leaflets glabrous on both sides, glaucous beneath."

1. Ailanthus excelsa, male — flowering branch, nearly 5. The same magnified but not well represented. natural size. 6. Cluster of carpels — natural size.

2. A male flower seen from above. 7. A carpel cut transversely, showing the solitary

3. Anthers back and front views. seed.

4. An ovary — natural she.

This is a small tropical order of which two or three species only have been found on the continent of India; the remainder being from America, continental Africa, and Madagascar.