74 Dr Wallich's Account of the netv genus Melanorrhoea. 



a free ovarium, and a dry fruit, supported by an unaltered 

 proper pedicel. 



I shall conclude by a few remarks on each of the genera to 

 which Melanorrhwa approaches. 



Anacardium and Semecarpus have their fruit resting on an 

 enlarged and fleshy peduncle or torus, and the latter genus 

 has three styles and a distinct hypogynous disc. 



Holigarna, a genus to which Mr Brown has referred many 

 years ago in his Appendix to Tuckey's Expedition to Congo, 

 is very distinct, by its inferior, adherent fruit. Both H. hngi- 

 folia and H, racemosa Roxb. produce an acrid juice, which is 

 used as a varnish. My friend and predecessor Dr Hamilton, 

 by whose death the world has recently lost a very learned and 

 excellent naturalist, informed me that he knew nothing of the 

 Burmese Varnish-tree, if different from a species o( HoUgarna. 

 In the collection of specimens, which he brought away from 

 Ava, and among the descriptions and drawings belonging to 

 them, all of which are deposited in the Banksian Herba- 

 rium, I can find no trace of this last-mentioned tree, nor did I 

 meet with it during my visit to that country. 



Buchanania has a crenate or lobed disc round the sessile 

 ovarium, 5 styles, and a baccate, naked drupe. 



Astronium resembles our genus in having an involucred 

 fruit ; but it is the persistent calyx and not the corolla which 

 enlarges ; it has besides a sessile ovarium and 3 styles. Its 

 leaves are compound. 



Augia of Loureiro (not to be confounded with Augea 

 Thunb. a Cape plant belonging to a widely different family,) 

 has polyandrous flowers ; but the fruit is naked and sessile. 

 Its leaves are pinnate. According to Loureiro the varnish 

 produced by this tree is that which is commonly used in China 

 and Siam. Neither this nor the following genus has been 

 noticed by subsequent botanical writers. 



Stagmaria verniciflua Jack, (in Malaycm Miscellanies, 

 vol. ii. Append. 3, p. 12,) has a tubular calyx, 5 stamens, a 

 stipitate, 3-celled ovarium, and a naked berry, containing a 

 pseudo-monocotyledonous embryo. It is a native of the Ma- 

 layan islands, and is the same as Arbor Vernicis of Rum* 

 phius, according to whom, Mr Jack observes, it is the tree. 



