i^sjrom the Kingdom of NepdL 451 



lianthus Himalayanus is constituted (Linn. Trans, xx. 417) from 

 a garden specimen of M. major grown at Hawalbagh, near Al- 

 morah, the only individual of the genus in Kumaon. In short, 

 if we take as criteria the genera Viburnum, Lonicera^y Cirsium, 

 and others in DeCandolle^s Prodromus, one-fourth of his Hima- 

 layan species have no reality independent of the different names 

 imposed by different botanists, and adopted as speciegi witl^O^I-, 

 examination. fj^rlno'ToJ/ 



Alhagi Maurorum is interesting as the shrub which yields 

 the ' Manna ' of N. Persia, Bokhara, and Samarkand, called 

 Tarangabin or Taranjabin ; the plant itself being Khar-i-Shutar 

 and Ushtar-Khar, i. e. Camel Thorn. The Manna of Mount 

 Sinai, a product of Tamarix gallicaj is also formed in Louristan 

 and Irak, where it is called Gazangabin or?.jGrazjinjja]3i». , Ji^fl 

 names are all Persian. iiirf^i-ro 'i-.m-imfi) m 7fM 



Saxifraga ligulata, Wall. 



S. Pacumbis, Ham. MSS. in Don, Prod. 209. Dr. Hamil- 

 ton's specific name, I doubt not, is a misprint for Pashan-bhed, 

 its Sanscrit designation (pronounced Pakhan-bhedin in the 

 mountains), still preserved as Pakhan-bh^d in Nepal and Gar- 

 hwal : so Royle, J. A. S. B. Oct. 1832, No. 12J . H. H. Wilson 

 erroneously explains the Sanscrit term by Plectranthus scutella- 

 rioides. It signifies ' Rock- splitter ' ; and it is the more inter- 

 esting that the name should in this remote district be applied 

 to a species of our genus Saxifraga, since Pliny (H. N. xxii. 30) 

 refers Saxifragum to Asplenium Trichomanes, or Adiantum Ca- 

 pillus- Veneris : " calculos e corpore mire pellit frangitque, uti- 

 que nigrum. Qua de caussa potius, quam quod in saxis nasce-t 

 retur, a nostris saxifragum adpellatum crediderim." ,3 



Catalogue, 771. Calotropis procera. Habitat in arenosi% 

 Mithilse, Magadhse, et Cosalse. 



The distribution of this plant {C. Hamiltonii, Wight, Contrib. 

 53) is ill understood. Abundant in the south of Syria (Beid-el-j 

 osshar). Northern Africa, and all the warmer regions of Asia, {( 

 traced it down the Ganges to Nadiya in Bengal, where it appa- 

 rently ceases. It appears to have escaped the observation of 

 Roxburgh, and is not mentioned in his '^ Flora Indica.' The 

 allied species, C. gigantea, is unknown in Northern India, ex- 

 cept at the base of the Himalaya below Naini Tal in Kumaon, 

 where for some miles it occurs in profusion : thence southward, 

 I met with it wild till ten or fifteen miles below Rajmahajj^ 

 from which to Nadiya both species are intermingled, C. gigantea 



* Lonicera quinquelocularis of Hardwick and Roxburgh (DC. iv. 338. 

 no. 50) is L. diversifolia, Wall. (no. 24, 334), as I ascertained on the s|)ot. 

 where the General discovered it. Exchide " ramis volubilibus.J^^^^y^ .«1 *^ 



