. . 
Coriariee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 165 
tunities offer. Such experiments, though they can be extensively or beneficially carried 
on only when the climate and natural products of a country have been ascertained, 
are well calculated to convince those who, unacquainted with a subject, are yet inclined 
to question its utility ; and though incapable of appreciating the worth of the information 
obtained, or the truth or error of the inferences deduced, yet consider themselves fully 
qualified to pronounce upon their value. But the botanist, contemplating his science in 
all the bearings with which modern improvements have invested it, in examining the 
peculiarities of a new vegetation, ascertains also what it is capable of yielding useful 
to man, either as diet, in medicine, or in the arts; and connecting structure with the 
‘climate in which it is found, infers, with almost unerring certainty, for what useful 
productions of other countries it is particularly adapted: and has thus the gratification 
of contributing at once towards the perfecting of his science, and pointing to the means 
for i improving the resources of the country for the benefit of which his investigations 
are, in the first instance, especially intended. 
52. OCHNACEZ. 
The plants of this small family, allied to Simarubee, are found in the hot parts of 
‘South America, as well as of Africa, and in the islands of Madagascar and Mauritius; 
whence we trace them into Ceylon and the Indian Peninsula, and across the ocean to 
Arabia, which participates with India in many of the same genera. On the eastern 
side of the Bay of Bengal, we have them running up the Malayan Peninsula to Silhet, 
where Ochna squarrosa is found, as well as at Prome and in the Indian Peninsula; and 
still higher we have, as frequently noticed, a diminutive species of a tropical genus as 
we proceed northwards. This, O. pumila, Ham., which is probably the same as both 
O. nana and O. humilis, is found at Goruckpore ; but in gardens, O. squarrosa succeeds 
in the open air as far as Saharunpore. In the Peninsula the species of Gomphia 
prevail with Ochna. 
The plants of this family possess but little sensible property ; but that little is of a 
bitter and rather astringent nature, so that some of the species are employed as tonics, 
53. CORIARIEZ. 
This family, consisting of a single genus, and of but few species, has a very wide 
distribution, single species occurring in very different parts of the world ; as one in the 
south of Europe and north of Africa, another in New Zealand, a third in Mexico, and a 
fourth in the Himalayas, with the remaining four species in Peru ; so that few inferences 
can be drawn from their distribution, except that they require a cool climate. 
The Himalayan species, C. Nepalensis, has been figured by Dr.Wallich in Pl.'As. 
Rar. t.289; and there is a representation of both the male and female plant in No. 71 
of the series of drawings made by the Honourable Company’s painters while under my 
direction. This species, originally found in Nepal, is common at Mussooree, from 
5,000 to 7,000 feet of elevation, to which, from its abundance, it — given its own 
name AMJussooree. 
M. De 
