or the Burmese Varnish Tree. 69 



dens, commissuras cotyledonum adpressa, basi subbifida, apice 

 inclinata et obtusa. Plumula minuta, occulta, lanceolata. 



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 fructi- 

 fication. In the Martaban province I had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the tree 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 cir- 

 cumference. 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 spe- 

 cimens from Tavoy on the Tenasserim coast. 



I took with me to Bengal a large quantity of ripe fruits of 

 the Varnish-tree, which germinated freely and produced up- 

 wards of 500 strong and healthy plants. Out of several indi- 

 viduals, which I had with me on board the ship in which I 

 came to Europe, I succeeded in preserving only one living 

 plant, which was presented to His Majesty's garden at Kew 

 by the East India Company. Subsequently several other plants 

 have been forwarded from the Calcutta garden to England. 



Before leaving Bengal I had an opportunity of identifiying 

 our tree with the majestic Kheu, or Varnish-tree of Munipur, 

 a principality in Hindustan, bordering on the N. E. frontier 

 districts of Sillet and Tippera. Mr George Swinton, chief 

 Secretary to the Bengal Government, (to whose kindness I 

 am indebted for much valuable information concerning the 

 produce of this and other useful trees of India,) obtained for 

 me a supply of ripe fruits from thence, which differed in no 

 respect from those I had seen at Martaban. They vegetated 



