Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 2.djvu/33

Rh fleshy, variously lobed, sometimes conferruminate 3 the radicle usually minute and concealed between the lobes. But, as nearly all of them have at different times been referred to Eugenia, even Caryophyllus itself, I, to prevent further confusion, retain that name for the restored genus. Adopting these characters for the genus I find that our Eugenia acris W. & A. and E. Pimenta,, D.C. do not belong to it, neither are they referable to Myrcia, but assuredly associate much better with the latter than the former genus.

To some it may appear, that this is too sweeping a reform and that these extensive reductions are neither required nor justified in the case to which they are applied. Should such an objection be urged, I have only to reply that, the most sedulous examination has not shown me how otherwise the difficulties I have indicated can be obviated, unless by the formation of additional genera each as artificial as those I propose to reduce.

My first thought was to form new genera and I had actually prepared definitions for two, amply distinguished so far as paper distinctions were concerned, but which, when compared, not with written characters but with their congeners, by laying the specimens side by side and minutely comparing the whole in every part, marking the gradual transitions of external forms, the uniformity of internal structure, in the organs of fructification, and finally the general uniformity of habit, I saw no alternative but to proceed as I have done and at once reunite the species, now distributed under Eugenia, Caryophyllus, Jambosa, Syzygium and Acmena into one vast genus. The correctness of this view I shall endeavour to establish by, in the first instance, presenting here a synoptical arrangement of nearly all the Indian species of the tribe Myrteae with which I am acquainted, and afterwards largely illustrating the genus Eugenia by devoting many plates to its elucidation in my Icones.

The characters I have assigned to the genera are brief but comprehensive, being anxious to avoid the introduction of any terms not absolutely required or in any way tending to exclude by unnecessary refinement, any species that really belong to them.

Of the folio wing genera Eugenia is by far the largest, exceeding in the number of its species all the others put together, and as its species present among themselves a considerable variety of form, it became absolutely necessary to distribute them into sections or sub-genera to facilitate the determination of the species. The plan I have adopted for this purpose aims at keeping together, as much as possible, the species referred by DeCandolle and others to the several genera I have reduced. By this means comparatively little inconvenience will be caused as each sub-genus retains the name it bore as a genus. The characters of these sub-genera are necessarily somewhat arbitrary and, on a few occasions, scarcely applicable to some of the species referred to them. This however is unavoidable in a genus so natural, and it is hoped, will not be objected to as figures of all such will be given in the Icones. The characters of the sub-genera are almost entirely taken from variations of the calyx, which are always obvious, aided by the inflorescence which is equally prominent. Two of these sub-genera are again divided into sections by the inflorescence being terminal or lateral. This last character, though in common use, I have found of difficult application in practice and very liable to mislead unless restricted by definite rules. These I have endeavoured to supply by considering all those lateral which spring from old wood, such for example, as from the ramuli of previous years or naked branches from the scars of fallen leaves : while those arising from young leafy shoots of the same season and forming a terminal corymbus, though all axillary I have considered terminal. By adhering to this rule I have in one or two instances referred specimens with terminal cymes to lateral sections, because the peduncles really rose from old wood and were only accidentally terminal, through the abortion of the shoot of the current season, which was proved by other instances where it was produced. Thus limited I have found this a good character as indicating a marked peculiarity of habit.

The great number of species referable to the sub-genus Syzygium rendering a further division necessary, I then had recourse to the petals, grouping those with cohering petals in one section and those with free expanding ones in another. This I at first expected to find a character of easy application, but in practice was disappointed, as both, not very rarely, occur in the same plant. All but one of those referred to the latter section have most unequivocally the habit of Syzygium but with the free expanding petals of Jambosa and easily form the transition to that genus.