on the Hortus Malabaricus, Part IV. 199 
of nut, as the cavity filled with a corky substance may have readily been mis- 
taken for a loculamentum containing a seed. If such be the case, the fruit of 
these two plants will approach near in character to that of the Gmelina, and 
they will form a genus distinct enough from Vitex, 
Vivi Maram, p. 77. tab. 37. 
Maram signifying ‘tree’, the Malabar name is Vidi. In the letter-press 
Rheede says that the Brahmans call it Quarenna; but on the plate the name 
is Salanti. Neither name has any affinity to the Bahuvaraka of the Sanskrita, 
corrupted by the Bengalese into Bahuari ; nor to Lissaura, the name by which 
several trees of this genus are called in the Hindwi dialect. 
The older botanists under the name Sebestena, derived from sepstan of the 
Arabs, described a plant, of which some authors reckoned two. varieties, the 
Sebestena domestica and S. sylvestris; and others, such as Plukenet, considered 
them as distinct species. He calls the former “ Prunus Sebestena domestica" 
(Alm. 306.; Phyt. t. 217. f. 2.); and the Vidi Maram he calls * Prunus Sebes- 
lena longiore folio Maderaspatensis," referring to it the Sebestena sylvestris of 
C. Bauhin and Alpinus (4/m. 306.; Phyt. t. 217. f. 3.). 
Rumphius (Herb. Amb. iii. 156.) considered the Vidi Maram as being his 
Arbor glutinosa; but the latter has only four or five divisions in the flower, 
while the Vidi Maram has six; and although Burman in his Commentary 
takes the Arbor glutinosa to be the Sebestena, Rumphius is far from coun- 
tenancing such an opinion. 
Linnzus adopted the opinion of there being only one species of Sebestena, 
which he called Cordia Myxa (Burm. Fl. Ind. 53.; Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1072.), 
applying the Arabic name Sebestena to an American plant. It must, however, 
be observed, that neither figure of Plukenet nor that of Rheede can be recon- 
ciled with the specific character given by Burman and Willdenow from Lin- 
neus; for in the figures the calyx is smooth, and the corymbus terminal, 
while in the definitions the calyx is said to be striated, and the corymbus 
lateral. M. Lamarck, therefore, justly suspected that the plant which Lin- 
neus actually saw, was not that of Egypt, nor of Malabar, but an American 
tree, which M. Lamarck calls Cordia lutea (Ill. Gen. i. 421.), while the Vidi 
Maram he calls Cordia officinalis (Ill. Gen. i. 420. t. 96. f. 3.). This, however, — 
