1^ 



every article of household furniture destined to contain either solid or liquid food is lacquered by means of it. At 

 a village close to Pagam on the Irawaddi, called Gnaunce, where this sort of manufacture is carried on very extensively 

 and to great perfection, I endeavoured to obtain some information relating to the precise mode of lacquering : but 

 I could learn nothing further than this,— that the article to be varnished must first be prepared with a coating of 

 pounded calcined bones; after which the varnish is laid on thinly, either in its pure state or variously coloured by 

 means of red or other pigments. I was told that the most essential as well as difficult part of the operation consists 

 in the process of drying, which must be effected in a very slow and gradual manner ; for which purpose the articles are 

 placed in damp and cool subterraneous vaults, where they are kept for several months until the varnish has become 

 perfectly dry. Another object for which the drug is extensively employed, is as a size or glue in the process of 

 o-ilding ; nothing more being required than to besmear the surface thinly with the varnish, and then immediately to 

 apply the gold leaf. If it is considered how very extensively that art is practised by the Burma nation, it being 

 among their most frequent acts of devotion and piety to contribute to the gilding of their numerous religious edifices 

 and idols, it will be evident that a great quantity of the drug must be consumed for that purpose alone. Finally, the 

 beautiful Pali, writing of the religious order of the Burmas on ivory, palm-leaves, or metal, is entirely done with this 

 varnish, in its native and pure state. 



I was not so fortunate as to see the tree while in flower, or to procure specimens of it in that state. But the 

 examination of its fruit and of some decayed old flowers, which I found under the trees, has enabled me to establish 

 it into a perfectly distinct new genus. A few days before I left India I obtained specimens in flower, but without any 

 fruit, of a second species from Tavoy, which have aided me in completing the generic character. The genus is 

 allied to most of those which form the tribe of Amcardece ; but it differs from them all in having a calyptriform, 

 one-leaved, caducous calyx, a persistent corolla which enlarges into a spreading involucrum, indefinite stamens, a 

 free ovarium, and a dry fruit, supported by an unaltered proper pedicel. 



I shall conclude by a few remarks on each of the genera to which Melanorrhoea approaches. 



Anacardmm and Semecarpus have their fruit resting on an enlarged and fleshy peduncle or torus, and the latter 

 genus has three styles and a distinct hypogynous disc. 



Holigarna, a genus to which Mr. Brown has referred many years ago in his Appendix to Tuckey's Expedition to 

 Congo, is very distinct, by its inferior, adherent fruit. Both H. long'ifolla and H. racemosa Roxb. produce an 

 acrid juice, which is used as a varnish. My friend and predecessor Dr. Hamilton, by whose death the world has 

 recently lost a very learned and excellent naturalist, informed me that he knew nothing of the Burmese Varnish- 

 tree, if different from a species of Holigarna. In the collection of specimens, which he brought away from Ava, 

 and among the descriptions and drawings belonging to them, all of which are deposited in the Banksian Herbarium, 

 I can find no trace of this last-mentioned tree, nor did I meet with it during my visit to that country. 



Buchanatiia has a crenate or lobed disc round the sessile ovarium, 5 styles, and a baccate, naked drupe. 



Astrommn resembles our genus in having an involucred fruit ; but it is the persistent calyx and not the corolla 

 which enlarges : it has besides a sessile ovarium and 3 styles. Its leaves are compound. 



Aug'ia of Loureiro (not to be confounded with Augea Tliunb., a Cape plant belonging to a widely different family) 

 has polyandrous flowers ; but the fruit is naked and sessile. Its leaves are pinnate. According to Loureiro the 

 varnish produced by this tree is that which is commonly used In China and Slam. Neither this nor the followIn«- 

 genus has been noticed by subsequent botanical writers. 



Stagmaria vemkiHua Jack, (in Malayan Miscellanies, vol. 11. Append. 3. p. 12.) has a tubular calyx, 5 stamens, 

 a stipitate, 3-celled ovarium, and a naked berry, containing a pseudo-monocotyledonous embryo. It is a native of 

 the Malayan islands, and is the same as Arhor Vernicis of Rumphius, according to whom, Mr. Jack observes it 

 is the tree, which yields the so much celebrated Japan lacquer or varnish, as well as that of Siam and Tonquin ; 

 although Loureiro represents the varnish of the two last countries as being the produce of a different tree. Mr. 

 Jack adds, that under the article Sanga in the Encydopedie Botanique, part of Rumphius's account is given, but 

 by a singular mistake the tree is conjectured to be a Hernandia ; and that, in the first volume of the same work, 

 the Arbor Vernicis is made Terminalia vernix ,- an error which has not been corrected by later authors. 



Rhus and Mauria differ in having a sessile, naked fruit, and foliaceous cotyledons.— I take this opportunity of 

 remarking that my Rhus juglandifolia, which I cannot distinguish from Kjempfer's Sitz or Sitzdsju, owes its specific 

 name to a hint thrown out by that author. As there exists a tree so called by Wllldenow, Professor Decandolle has 

 changed the name to R. vernicifera. The coincidence of the Burmese name of Melanorrhcea usitatissima v,\t\y that 

 of the Japan Varnish-tree is remarkable. 



Plate XI. A branch with leaves. 



luf-l' "^"/a"? -f '7*-'''"'^.^ ':r''. f,f "^« b^f«- -^t--ity- F'S- '■ A detached fruit, perfectly ripe, showing the large invo- 

 luaum. 2. A fruit cut across xn the middle. 3. Seed. 4. The same with the cotyledons a little separated. 5. Cotyledons 

 6. The same seen from the inner smooth surface. ■ '-'"•'J*^""""- 



