Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/371

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

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S. Grahamii, (R. W. Icon. PL Ind, Ort. 235.) Leaves euneato-lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, petiol short, furnished with 4 subulate bodies (as in Holigarna hngifolia) panicles racemose, contracted, congested towards the summits of the branch- es: calyx truncated, cup-shaped, adnate, with the lower half of the young fruit: styles 3, lateral, near the apex, reflex ed, stigmas capitate; ovary and young fruit cover- ed with rusty colored hairs; ovule solitary, pendulous from the base of the styles.

I dedicate this species to the memory of my late highly esteemed correspondent John Graham, Esq. of Bombay, from whom I received along with many others, the specimen here described marked " 91, Holigarna ov Semecarpus — a large tree called Biboo. It grows on the ghauts." In his premature removal science has lost an able and devoted votary, at a time too when diligently employed in the preparation and publication of a cata- logue of the plants of the Bombay Presidency.

The genera Semecarpus and Holigarna are so nearly alike in their generic characters, in the earlier stages of fructification, that I cannot be surprised at the doubt he expressed as to its genus, as they are only distinguish- able by the one having inferior the other superior fruit, which, at the period this one was gathered, is not so evi- dent as in its more advanced stages.

B. lanccolata,(R. W. Icon. PL Ind. Ort. 237.) Leaves lanceolate, acute, or acuminate, quite entire, glabrous, congested towards the summits of the young shoots: panicles pubescent, erect, terminal and axillary from the summits of the branches, contracted: floWers small, numerous, capitate on the ends of the short lateral divi- sions of the panicle.

Malabar near Quilon.

1 have not seen the fruit. The leaves are so like those of Mangifera indica that the same terms serve to characterize both.

Gen. Char. Calyx persistent. Petals roundish. Disk annular, fleshy, embracing the ovary. Style I, conical, stigma simple. Berry globose, 1-seeded. — Meisner.

This brief character is, I presume, copied from Cole- brooke's paper in the Linnsean transactions. The ori- ginal I do not possess the means of consulting; but it is too imperfect to admit of my referring with certainty the following plant to it, the more so as the habit is not given.

P. ? Colebroolaana, (R. W. Ic. PL Ind. Ort. 236.) Ar- boreous, leaves coriaceous, alternate, simple, oblong or obovate, quite entire, acute or ending in a short abrupt acumen, parallelly veined, glabrous, racemes axillary, or from the scars of fallen leaves, much shorter than the leaves, many-flowered. Fruit superior, globose, point- ed with the persistent fleshy style and capitate stigma : perecarp containing between its laminae numerous small

cells, the base bound by a ring. Seed one, erect, cotyle- dons thick, fleshy, radicle inferior.

Hab. — Shevagerry Hills.

The leaves sometimes resemble those of some species of Pterospermum. They are usually broader above and some of them somewhat truncated at the apex, reticula- ted and villous beneath. The imperfect remains of the calyx in these specimens seem to indicate that it is 5- lobed, and several of the fruit retain the fleshy ring which originally bound the ovary.

The following remarks and characters I copy verbatim from Dr. Arnott's paper on this genus, published in the Annals of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 85-86.

" In the Prodromus Florae Peninsulas India; Orientalis, l. p. 176, Dr. Wight and I united this, as a subgenus, to Protium, and it still appears to me doubtful if the two be separated by sufficiently important characters: the habit is, however, very different. In consequence of the addition of several new species, the character given by Dr. Wight and me, will require to be slightly alter- ed, as follows:

Calyx late vel tubuloso-campanulatus : torus disci- formis in fundo calycis ovarium cingens, externe inter singula stamina verrucula elevata instructus: stamina octo: drupa ovata : nux obtusa angulata.

From this it is obvious that the shape of the calyx and nut is not sufficient to distinguish Balsamodendron from the species we referred to the Prolium of Burmann, and that the principal character consists in the position of the torus or disk.

All the East Indian species which I have seen have the calyx tubular-cam panulate as in the Senegarnbia one, {Heudelotia) and Commiphora of Jacquein, while it is broad and shallow in B. gileadense, and perhaps in the other two from Arabia: but, as these last are not suffi- ciently known, I cannot avail myself of that probable difference of structure to subdivide the genus into sec- tions. The following is a synopsis of all the specjes known.

1. B.Berryi, Am. spinescens, foliislongiusciile petio- latis glabris, foliolis 3 cuneato-obovatis crenatis, termi- nali lateralibus duplo majore, pedicellis unifioris brevi- bus, petalis calyce breviter tubuloso subduplo longiori- bus, fructu apiculato. — Protium Gileadense. {W.and A. Prod. Exel. syn.) Amyris Gileadensis, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. p. 246. Exel. syn.

2. B. Roxburghii, Arn. spinescens, foliis petiolatis glabris, foliolis 3, terminali ovaii serrulato, lateralibus minutis, pedicellis unifioris brevibus. — Amyris Commi- phora.

3. B. Wightii, Arn. Spinescens, foliis sessilibus gla- bris, foliolis 3, subaequahbus cuneato-obovatis acute dentalo-serratis, floribus sessilibus fasciculatis, fructu subiter acuminato.



7. B. Gileadense, Kunth ; inerme, foliis petiolatis glabris, foliolis 3, integerrimis obovato-oblongis, pedi- cellis brevibus unifioris, calyce latiuscule campanulato. B. Gileadense et B. opobalsamum. — Kunth.