Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/145

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY-

71 regarding the Indian members of the family. The bark of one species of Lonicera L. corymbosa is astringent, and used in dying in Chili, but it is doubted whether this is a genuine species of the genus or even of the order. The Honey-suckles have been long held in high esteem for the beauty or fragrance of their flowers, and several species have been used in medicine, but seem now to have fallen into disuse, except in domestic practice. The berries of most are supposed to be aperient. The Elder has long been used in medicine. The flowers are considered one of the best indigenous sudorifics of Europe, while on the other hand the leaves and inner bark are acrid and poisonous, in large doses, producing violent vomiting and purging.

These properties have led to their being employed as a remedy in dropsical cases. The berries have also been employed in similar diseases, and, made into a conserve, are still to be met with in the shops under the name of Elder Robe, which in domestic medicine is prescribed as a sudorific and aperient. Elder-berry wine is consumed in England to a considerable extent; and made into negus and drank warm, just before going to bed, is a popular remedy of some repute in cases of slight colds unaccompanied with feverish symptoms.

The berries of Viburnum are slightly astringent, and in some parts of Europe are employed for making gargles and are administered in slight bowel complaints.

While examining the several genera, with reference to this division of the subject, I became aware of what I cannot help thinking a very curious fact, and one which, a priori, I could not have anticipated, namely, that European Botanists do not seem to be aware of the structure of the ovary of Virburnum. All refer to the one-seeded fruit but all lead us to suppose the ovary is 3-celled. DeCandolle describes the fruit as a berry one-seeded by abortion, leading of course to the presumption that there is at least a plurality of ovules if not of cells, while the ordinal character' assigns 3 cells, hence we may infer that he believed there were 3 cells with one or more ovules in each. Lindley seems to be partially aware of the fact as he says, "ovary with from 1 to 3 or 4 cells," but does not hint in what genus the solitary cell is found, and in his School Botany gives Viburnum a 3-seeded fruit. Arnott and Hooker both, with slight modifications, follow DeCandolle, but neither alludes to Viburnum. Endlicher on the other hand goes a step beyond them, assigning "ovarium inferum triloculare 11 as part of the character of the genus. I have examined the ovary of 17 species, 2 European, 3 American and 12 Indian, all of which, without a single exception, had a one-celled ovary with a single, pendulous ovule, and that in several instances long before the opening of the flower. At what period then does the abortion referred to take place ? According to my experience never, as there is never more than one ovule.

In Lonicera the number of cells is usually three, with several ovules in each, and frequently all except one or two abort. The example given in the plate of a berry with 5 seeds may, therefore, and not without justice, be suspected of error. Such, however, is not the case, for on examining the specimens from which that figure was taken, I find four and five seeds the usual number; but I must at the same time acknowledge that it was an oversight giving an uncommon form as the type of the genus, without, at the same time, correcting the erroneous impression it is calculated to convey by giving other figures of the normal form. This error is corrected in the accompanying plate, No. 121, giving dissected analyses of several of the genera of the order and of three foi-ms of Lonicera.

The Lonicera represented may, however, be a new species, differing from L. Leschenaultii in the unusual structure of the ovary and fruit and in the persistence of the calyx, in which respect it approaches Triosteum, and in that case would retain the name of L. mollis, which Wallich has already given, but which, for want of sufficient characters, we reduced to a synonym of the other.

The accompanying plates, Nos. 120 and 121, contain analyses of four genera, all appertaining to the Indian Flora, and therefore suitable subjects for this work.

1. Lonicera Leschenaultii 1 } or L. mollis, flowering 4. Transverse section of a nearly mature fruit — 5- branch, natural size. celled and 5-seeded.

2. Corolla split open, showing the stamens. The ovary of several flowers I have examined is in-

3. Ovary, style and stigma, with accompanying bracts variably 4-celled, this therefore must be an accidental and bractiols. augmentation.