136 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Sapindaceee. 
39. SAPINDACEX. 
This order, named from the genus of which the fruit is remarkable for its saponaceous 
properties, is almost entirely confined to the equinoctial parts, both of the Old and of 
the New World. Thus the greater number of the species and genera are found in the 
West Indies, in Mexico, and the warm parts of South America; a few of them in 
Africa, and in the islands of Madagascar, Bourbon, and Mauritius, whence we trace 
them into the Indian Archipelago and the Malayan and Indian Peninsulas. In the 
southern parts of India they are abundant, and a few of them extend into China. 
_ It has been remarked, that as the Sapindacee come near to Meliacee, so they resemble 
them in habit and in their pinnated leaves, and thus dried specimens of the two orders 
are apt to get mixed together, of which an instance occurs in the unadjusted portion of 
the East-Indian Herbarium, where some of the Meliucee, as well as species of Milling- 
tonia, have got intermingled with the Sapindacee: and as there is also resemblance 
‘between these and some of the Terebinthacee, so some of the species of AZLillingtonia, 
closely allied to the former, were found among the roughly-adjusted portion of the 
latter. Odina wodier resembles some genera of Sapindaceé in a few points of structure, 
as well as in general appearance, when seen in a dried state. 
In India are found species of the genera Cardiospermum, Sapindus, Schmidelia, Cupania, 
Melicocca, and Dodonea, all of which are also found in the. warm parts of America. 
The last also extends from the islands of Ceylon and Bourbon. to New Holland. Har- 
pullia is a new genus, formed by Dr. Roxburgh, of a tree found in Chittagong, which is 
allied to Cupania, and comes near Tina. (Fl. Ind. ed Wall. 2. p. 442.) The genus 
Euphoria is common to India and China, several species having been found in the dis- 
trict of Silhet ; and even the Chinese fruit, E. Longan, Dr. Roxburgh mentions being 
indigenous in the mountainous country which forms the eastern frontier of Bengal, as 
well as cultivated inChina. Specimens of it may be seen in the East-Indian Herbarium, 
procured by Dr.Wallich from the same tract of country, where the fruit is eaten, and 
called gooloom. Dr. Roxburgh also states having had specimens even of the Li-chi sent 
him from old trees growing on the Garrow mountains, when the trees in Bengal were 
but small. The genus Pierardia, of which P. sapida affords an edible fruit in Tippera, 
to the east of Calcutta, and P. dulcis, in the Malayan Peninsula, would appear also to 
be cultivated in China, as Dr. R. was informed by his Chinese gardeners, that P. sapida, — 
iutco of the Hindoos, is also a native of their country, where it is called Lutgua, and is 
cultivated for its agreeable fruit. With the exception of Cupania and Dodonea, which 
seem restricted to the Peninsula, all the above genera are found in Silhet and the 
neighbouring districts, which would appear to be the head-quarters of this family in : 
India. Here there is also a new genus, Cardiopteris of Dr. Wallich, referred by him to 
- the section Paulliniee, of which the greater proportion are natives of America. This, in 
its climbing habit and lobed leaves, somewhat resembles a Bryony, but has a winged 
fruit something like a Hira. This was called Sioja sanguinaria by Dr. Hamilton, and 
first 
