132 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Guttifere. 
season, and abundant rains during the wet. Species ofall the Indian genera, as above 
enumerated, are also found in Silhet, whence they extend a little further northward 
along the tract of forest. Garcinia cowa was found by Dr. Hamilton at Monghir, and 
Mesua speciosa by Dr.Wallich in Nepal ; but there we know there are valleys with a 
tropical vegetation, where the heat is great, and the moisture considerable. The effects 
of culture and of an artificial climate have been mentioned at p. 6, where it has been 
shewn that one of the Guttifere can exist even so far north as Delhi, in 28° of N. lati- 
tude, when no other species are known to grow nearer than 4° further south. This is 
Xanthochymus pictorius, the dephul of the natives ; but X. dulcis, which it closely resem- 
bles in foliage, has been inadvertently mentioned: the same reasoning will, however, 
equally apply to both species. The greater portion, however, of the genera belonging 
to this order is not found in India, though the species are numerous; but in the West 
Indies and warm parts of South America, as well as in Madagascar, where the approxi- 
mation in climate is greatest to the Malayan and Indian Peninsulas, as well as to thé 
climate of Chittagong and Silhet. The Guétifere are in some points related to the 
Ebenacee,as may be seen by comparing species of Garcinia with some species of Diospyros. 
The natural method is in no point better calculated to display its advantages to the 
general observer, than in the fact that the properties or products of the same parts of 
the plants of a family have in general the closest resemblance to one another ; and 
though anomalies present themselves, yet these appear more numerous than they are 
likely to do, because from the little investigation that plants were formerly subjected to, 
we are not yet acquainted with all the anomalies of structure. This possession of similar 
properties is strikingly exemplified in so many plants of this family producing a resinous 
exudation, which is similar in both physical and. medical properties to gamboge, ossareh- 
rewund, thubarb-juice of Persian authors. This has long been known as a pigment and 
as a drastic purgative, introduced by Clusius, for which we are indebted to the East > 
but the tree has not been well ascertained, probably in consequence of so many of the 
family yielding a similar product. Two kinds are known in Indian _bazars ; one, the 
best, is the produce of Siam: this is in rolls, having been apparently rolled or cast in 
moulds when in a soft state: it is solid and compact in texture, and forms the best 
pigment. It is supposed to be procured from Stalagmitis Cambogioides, a plant which, 
according to Dr. Wight and Mr. Arnott, is a species of the genus Garcinia, and probably 
identical with G. cochinchinensis. The other kind, in smaller pieces, granular, brittle, 
less valued as a colour, and less effective as a purgative, is the produce of Ceylon. This, 
there can be little doubt, is the produce of Xanthochymus ovalifolius, the only plant in 
Ceylon (W. and A.) that yields a gamboge fit for the arts; an indifferent kind is also 
yielded by X. pictorius. Garcinia zeylanica, cowa, cornea, and, pictoria, all yield, like 
most plants of this order, an inferior kind of gamboge. The last, originally sent by 
Mr. Dyer, surgeon, at Tellicherry, to Dr. Roxburgh, who found it, even in its crude 
unprepared state, superior in colour while recent to every other kind, but not so perma- 
nent as that from Siam. (1. Ind. 2. p. 629.) 
It 
