304 Analysis of Books. 



the second of the latter. We shall offer a few remarks upon them 

 respectively. 



The first volume of the Plantre Asiatics Rariores contains ninety- 

 six species, represented in lithography, and coloured. Nearly all 

 the drawings from which these figures have been taken were made 

 in India by native artists attached to the Botanic Garden ; a very 

 small number has been prepared in England. Onr limits preclude 

 our quoting all the subjects that the volume comprehends ; refer- 

 ring, therefore, the scientific botanist to the work itself, we select a 

 few of the subjects that are likely to be most interesting to the 

 general reader. 



The two first plates illustrate the Amherstia nobilis, a Burmese 

 tree, named in honour of the Countess and Lady Sarah Amherst, 

 remarkable for bearing an elegant ash-like foliage, half hidden 

 amidst which hang bunches of the most brilliant scarlet and 

 yellow blossoms, each with its scarlet stalk nearly six inches in 

 length. The Hindoos offer the flowers at the shrine of Buddha. 

 For splendour of colouring and elegance of form, this plate is unri- 

 valled. It is the high priest of the vegetable world, clothed in an 

 investiture more splendid than that of the most gorgeous religion of 

 mankind. Tab. 4, is Hibiscus Lindlei, a fine species, with large 

 bright purple flowers, now cultivated in England. Tab. 9, Curcuma 

 Roscoeana, is a plant with spikes of scarlet bracteaB six or seven 

 inches long, unrivalled for beauty among the ginger tribe. Tab. 11 

 and 12 represent theZit-siof the Burmese (Melanorhrea usitatissima), 

 from which is obtained that poisonous but invaluable black varnish 

 with which China and India toys arid utensils are coated. From 

 the account of this tree we extract the following: 



* The first time I met with this very interesting tree was at a small 

 village below Prome, on the river Irawaddi, where a few had been 

 planted ; and on my return from Ava I found it again in abundance on 

 the hills surrounding the first mentioned town ; but in both instances the 

 trees were without any fructification. In the Martaban province I had 

 the satisfaction of seeing the trees in great numbers in March, 1827, on a 

 small acclivity rising behind the town of Martaban. They were loaded 

 with bunches of red, nearly ripe, fruit, but were not very large, few only 

 exceeding thirty feet in height, with a short trunk measuring not more 

 than four or five feet in circumference. The leaves had entirely fallen 

 off, and strewed the ground in every direction. At Neynti, a village on 

 the Attran river, behind the military station at Moalmeyn, I also observed 

 a few trees; and lastly, on the Saluen river towards Kogun. Here they 

 were of greater dimensions than those just mentioned ; one of them being 

 forty feet in height, with a stem twelve feet long, and eleven in girth at 

 four feet above the ground. One of my assistants brought me fruit- 

 bearing specimens from Tavoy on the Tenasserim coast. Before leaving 

 Bengal I had an opportunity of identifying our tree with the majestic 

 Kheu, or varnish tree of Munipur, a principality in Hindustan, bordering 

 on the north-east frontier districts of Sillet and Tippera. Mr. George 

 Swinton, Chief Secretary to the Bengal Government, (to whose kind- 

 ness I ara indebted for much valuable information concerning the produce 

 of this and other useful trees of India,) obtained for me a supply of ripe 



