on the Hortus Malabaricus, Fart II. 183 



Bacca plures receptaculo subrotundo pedicellis mediocri- 

 bus insidunt oblongae, utrinque obtusae, 5- seu 6-loculares. 

 Loculi monospermi, uno super alterum posito, septis trans- 

 versis tenuissimis discreti. Seminum albumen rimis profun- 

 dis trans versis incisum. 



Cara Nosi, p. 13, Jig. 11. 

 . .: Bem Nosi, p. 15, _^"g'. 12. 



The earliest botanists, who treated of Indian plants, such as 

 Acosta and Garcias ab Horto, called these shrubs by the name 

 Negunda or Negundo, the origin of which is rather doubtful. 

 Rheede indeed says, that it is the name given by the Brahmans 

 of Malabar ; but in this I suspect some mistake, as in general 

 they use either Sanscrit or Hindwi names, and these plants are 

 called Sindhuka and Nismda, in the sacred and vulgar dialects 

 of Gangetic India. We might, I think, agree with Rumphius 

 (Herb. Amh. iv. 48.) in considering A^egMwc?o as a vulgar name, 

 that is one originating in mistake, and not derived from any 

 known language, unless it be a corruption of the Malay word 

 Lagundi, which is not improbable, L and N being interchange- 

 able letters. 



By these early writers the Negundo was divided into two 

 kinds, male and female, not distinguished by the one producing 

 only flowers, and the other fruit also, but from the one being 

 considered most pregnant with medical virtues. The Cara Nosi 

 was reckoned the male, and the Bem Nosi the female. 



Caspar Bauhin endeavoured to distinguish these two kinds by 

 their size, calling the female Vitex trifolia major. 



Plukenet, in imitation of Breynius, endeavoured to distinguish 

 these two kinds by the margins of their leaves, calling the female 

 Vitex trifolia minor Indica, and the male Vitex trifolia minor In- 

 dica serrata {Aim. 390.); but this is founded on error, as Rum- 

 phius 



