on the Hortus Malabaricus, Part IV. 185 
names of Rheede and Bontius; but states (Mant. 178.) that it grows in the 
Island of Johanna, which would seem to show that it is an African as well as 
an Asiatic production. Plukenet, it must be observed, takes no notice what- 
ever of this plant in the 4/magestum ; much less does he compare it to the 
Terebinthus, as the elder Burman alleges in his note on Rumphius. 
This latter author is the first after Rheede who gives an account of this 
tree, which he calls Jatus, from its Malay name Jati, signifying, as Rumphius 
observes, durable, and by no means, as Commeline imagined, the name of the 
Oak, a tree totally unknown to the natives. 
After Rumphius, this valuable tree continued unnoticed by botanists, until 
the younger Linnzeus published the Supplementum, in which he called it Tec- 
tona grandis, by a very forced and irregular derivation from rezzo», faber, a 
word never, I believe, applied to the material on which the workman operates. 
In the modern rage, however, for Greek, the name has been generally re- 
ceived (Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1088.; Hort. Beng. 17.; Hort. Kew. ii. 12.), although 
Jussieu (Gen. Plant. 121.), M. Lamarck (Il. Gen. t. 136.), and M. Poiret 
(Enc. Méth. vii. 592.), most justly prefer the Malabar name Theka. 
In the kingdom of Ava this valuable tree is called Kiun; but there is still 
more common another species of the same genus called Ta-la-hat, which, 
although very ornamental, is nearly useless. Its leaves, however, serve cabinet- 
makers for polishing their work. I shall here give a description of this tree, 
of which I sent to England specimens and a drawing, that were given to 
Sir Joseph Banks; but a copy of the drawing is in the library at the India 
House. I shall here premise, that, although Jussieu places the Theka among the 
Vitices, I am with all submission inclined to think it more nearly allied to the 
Borraginew, on account of the number of stamina and regularity of its corolla. 
THEKA TERNIFOLIA. 
Habitat in Ave collibus sterilissimis. 
Arbor inter minores. Rami hexagoni, obtusanguli; juniores trisulci, lanati. 
Folia terna, elliptica, integerrima, acuta, costata, venis reticulata; supra 
papillosa, hispida, ad nervos pilosa; subtus tomento albo, molli pubes- 
centia.  Petiolus brevissimus, semiteres, tomentosus, non stipulaceus. 
Inter tomentum pili nonnulli stellati. 
