Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/220

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. the petals are thinner than the middle, and in place of overlapping each other or imbricating, they are folded inwards, so as, in the words of Dr. Lindley, "to assume the appearance of wings, belonging to a triangular back."

Geographical Distribution. Only one genus, Scasvola, of 14 referred to the order, is found in India, the rest belong to the Eastern Islands, Australia, the Islands of the Southern Ocean, and Africa, and a few in tropical America. Of the 57 species, assigned to the genus Scaevola, 3 are said to be found in India. I have not myself, however, met with more than 1, and that I have gathered in Ceylon, and on both the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts, and received specimens from the Tenasserim Coast. Of one D. C. adds, "Cor. ex Rheede intus tomentosa." This I find, as regards the tube, in specimens from both Maulmein and India, and it forms part of Roxburgh's description of S. Taccada, whence I suspect the S. Bela Modagam is really, as supposed by Roxburgh, identical with his plant, and that Southern India, in place of three, has but one species. Scind possesses another. Several of the species are widely distributed.

On this subject little is known. The leaves of S. Taccada are eaten by the natives. The Malays use the pith for making artificial flowers, &c, as the Hindoos use that of jEschenomene aspera, and Rheede states that the Malabar plant is used as an emollient to promote suppuration of boils and tumours.

Under this head I have but little to say. As already remarked, 3 species of Sccevola are assigned by De Candolle to India, of these I only know one, that figured ; whether the other two are varieties of it or destinct species, I am unable to say. The only other species, with which I am acquainted, is one from Scind, specimens of which were communicated by Mr. Stocks, of the Bombay Medical Establishment. So far as the character and description goes, it accords with S. Plumieri, but as there are others which it has, and which could scarcely have been overlooked if present in the plants described, I should not be surprised to find it prove a new species. The following extended specific character drawn up by Mr. Stocks, accompanied the specimens, which I insert, to enable Botanists, having specimens of the true plant, to compare and determine the identity or otherwise of the American and Scind plants. I give it under Mr. Stocks' 1 name (though he does not now think it a new species) so that, should it prove new, he, as the discoverer, may have the honor of naming it. "Scasvola uvifera (Stocks 1 MSS.), shrubby, glabrous, decumbent at the base, ramous, branches fleshy: axils nearly naked: leaves from oval to obovate, entire, succulent, narrowing towards the base into a short petiol: cymes axillary, about the length of the leaves, peduncles somewhat compressed: bracts linear, fleshy : limb of the calyx cup-shaped, entire or 5-6-crenate: lobes of the corolla fimbricated towards the base: stamens glabrous: anthers terminated by the inflexed apex of the connectivum: ovary marked with JO coloured lines: drupe dark purple; putamen pyreform, 10-sulcated, rugous.

"Allied to S. Plumieri, if not indeed that plant. The hairs in the axils are scarcely visible with a lens. In size, shape, colour, bloom and consistence of the flesh, the fruit resembles a black grape."

I shall endeavour to find room for a figure of this plant in the Icones.

1. Scczvola Taccada (Roxb.), natural size.

2. Corolla detached and split open, to show the hairy tube and membranaceous margins of the lobes.

3. Ovary, calyx, stamens and pistil, showing the in- dusium of the style, within which the proper stigma lies concealed.

4. Detached stamens.

OF PLATE 117.

5. Ovary cut vertically.

6. cut transversely.

7. A detached nut splitting at the apex.

8. A seed cut vertically, showing the large embryo and sparing albumen.

9. Embryo detached.