Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/296

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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

This small order, consisting of a single genus, was first defined as snch by the late Mr. George Gardner and myself in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History for April 1845. At that time we considered it amply distinct from Oleacece. A more intimate acquaintance with that order, especially the section Chionanthece, leads me to doubt whether indeed it ought to be retained as a distinct order, a doubt which is strengthened by the discovery of a tetrandrous Oleacea in Miers 1 new genus Tesserandra. With that genus I am not acquainted, not even with the character, but as Lindley adopts it in his Vegetable Kingdom, I have no doubt of its being correctly referred to that order.

Flowers dioicous. Male. Calyx urceolate, 4-cleft. Petals 4, hypogynous, equal, aestivation valvate. Stamens 4, hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled, introrse, dehiscing longitudinally, connective shortly produced, apiculate. Ovary abortive, conical. Female. Calyx irregularly 2-4-cleft. Corolla as iu the male, stamens rudimentary. Ovary hypogynous, turgid, 2-celled, with a single ovule in each cell. Style none ; stigma sessile, peltate, somewhat 2-lobed. Fruit a globose berry, 2-celled or rarely, by abortion, 1 -celled ; cells one-seeded. Seeds erect, plano-convex ; testa coriaceous, rugose ; albumen none. Embryo lenticular ; cotyledons fleshy, cordato-auriculate at the base ; radicle inferior. — A rambling shrub with opposite leaves ; from the axils of each of which spring two long, divaricate, pungent prickles. Flowers small, axillary, sessile, solitary or aggregated. Fruit a soft, white, very juicy berry.

When establishing this order, Mr. Gardner and I expressed our belief that it was intermediate between Oleacece and Jasminece, but sufficiently distinct from both, con- sidering it essentially distinct from Oleacece by its erect not pendulous ovules, and exalbuminous seed (characters to which I now attach less value than I did then) ; and as agreeing with JasminecB in the ovary and baccate fruit, but differing in the floral envelopes. I now view it as very nearly akin to Chionanthece, in fact as almost referable to that group, the points of distinction, so far as I can see, scarcely attaining ordinal value. Lindley places it among the Ilicinece without any doubt, a distribution which its erect ovules and exalbuminous seed pre- vents my adopting. Others have placed it in Jpocynece, and D. C. suggests, that it may belong to Loganiacece which I view as being about equally remote from its real affinities, but both tending to confirm the propriety of its present location ; while the existence of a tetrandrous genus (Tesserandra) in Oleacece seems to justify the remark that it is not sufficiently distinct from that order. M. Bojer of the Mauritius also suggests its affinity with Loganiacece.

India and the Cape of Good Hope are the only countries in which Axima has yet been met with. In India it is most abundant and widely distributed over the peninsula, but I am unable to say how far north it extends. Wallich refers to a species from Burmah ; and Harvey characterizes the genus from Cape specimens.

Little seems known under this head. The leaves when bruised have a peculiar, heavy, disagreeable, musky smell, and the juice is by the natives prescribed as an expectorant in cases of Cough, Consumption, and Humoral Asthma, but as it is always conjoined with many other things, it is impossible to say to what extent the benefit derived, if any, is due to its curative action. The powder of the roots is also occasionally similarly employed.

In an order consisting of one genus, and two or three species, there is little room for remarks under this head, I shall therefore content myself with one or two passing remarks on the name we have adopted for the order. Lamack first named and published the plant on which it is founded in 1783 in the Encyclopedia Methodiqne, a large and costly work, and of course likely to be in few hands. In 1784 LTieritier repub-