Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/425

Rh Silhet. Flowers in the rainy season, and ripens its seed in the cold season, about January.

Beng. (at Silhet) Ghorma.

Trunk arboreous.Leaves alternate, short-petioled, ovate to broad lanceolate, (sometimes unequal,) acuminate, entire, smooth, shining; 4—6 inches long, 1—3 broad.Petioles inch; round beneath, channelled on the upper edge.Racemes length of the leaf, erect, simple, cylindric.Peduncles four-cornered, slender, villous.Pedicels as long as the flowers.Flowers yellowish-green, inodorous.Perianth cyathiform, six-toothed, deciduous, leaving a small entire ring at the base of the fertilized germ.Teeth subulate.Petals six, on the margin of the calycine cup, ovate, villous.Filaments numerous (30 — 40) on the margin of the calycine cup, capillary.Anthers round.Germ above, roundish, villous.Style filiform, length of the stamina.Stigma truncate.Drupe transversely oblong, juiceless at maturity, size of an olive, dark-purple.Nut subreniform, contracted in the middle;lobes subequal; crustaceous.Seed conform to the nut, attached dorsally a little below the apex.Integument single, chartaceous.Perisperm none.Embryo conform to the seed, inverse, yellowish-white.Cotyledons thick, flat on the contiguous ends, and hemispherical on the outer; amygdaloid.Radicle superior, very small, conical.

Gærtner, who constituted the genus, saw neither flower nor any other part of the plant besides the fruit: consequently, until his Ceylonese plant has been further examined, it must remain doubtful, as I apprehend, whether the species be distinct: and, at all events, the specific character cannot be yet determined, as but one species is fully described. XXIII. Upon