228 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



bush ten or twelve feet high, it is a herb not higher than a yard ; 

 its stem is smooth ; and its inferior leaflets are sometimes again 

 composed of three. In the collection presented by me to the 

 East India Company, I have called it Leea herbacea ; but I am 

 not certain that the circumstances I have mentioned are suffi- 

 cient to establish it as a distinct species from the Nalugu ; it may 

 perhaps be considered as merely a variety ; and I should even 

 consider it as entirely the same, were there any hint in the Hort. 

 Mai. that the inferior pinnae of the Nalugu are ever subdivided ; 

 for there is no mention of the Nalugu having a hairy stem, as is 

 said to be the case in the Leea cequata. What Rheede says of 

 the leaflets of the I^alugu is applicable also to the L. herbacea^ 

 and serves to distinguish both from the Staphylea indica of Bur- 

 man or Leea sambucina. " Folia (foliola) in margine rotundis 

 denticulis incisa, et crispa lateribus versus interiorem partem 

 contractis.^Ex costa (media) costsE binae et binae — obliquo an- 

 nular! ac parallelo ductu proxime ad marginem exeunt ac reflexa 

 in se invicem incurrunt." 



I shall now add a description of the Leea herbacea, which in 

 the vulgar Hindwi dialect is called Govarai, and in the more 

 polished language of physicians, Amarphul. 



Caulis herbaceus, 2 vel 3 pedes altus, simplex, supra folia nodo- 

 sus, glaber, obtusangulus. Folia ima ternata, superiora cum 

 imparl pinnata, pinnis imis aliquando ternatis. Foliola op- 

 posita, oblongo-ovata, acuminata, inaequaliter serrata, nervo 

 ad marginem parallelo costata, venis minute reticulata, su- 

 pra glabra, subtus pilosa, petiolata, remota. Petiolus basi 

 membranaceo subvaginans, tetragonus, angulo superiore 

 profunde sulcato, Rachis ad foliola nodosa. Ci/ma axil- 

 laris vel terminalis, indeterminate divisa, ramulis glabris, 

 acutangulis. Flores parvi, virides. Calyx turbinatus ore 



quinque- 



