Apocynea.) THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 269 
immersed in some of the finer of the expressed oils. The Hursinghar scents the 
gardens with its delightful perfume only during the night, covering the ground in the 
morning with its short-lived flowers, which being collected like those of the Chumbelee, 
are strung on threads and worn as necklaces, or entwined in the hair of the native 
women. The tubes of the corols are moreover dried and used for dyeing an orange 
colour. 
112. POTALIACEZ. 
This small order, pointed out by Mr. Brown (Tuckey’s Congo, p. 449), has been 
established by Von Martius, and is allied to both Apocynee and Loganiee, and is, like 
the latter, found in the tropical parts of Asia, Africa, and America. The species of 
Fagrea are found in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, in both the Indian and 
Malayan Peninsulas, and at the foot of the ramifications of the Himalaya, in the forests 
of Silhet. The properties of the plants of this genus do not seem to have been examined ; 
those of Potalia are bitter and acrid. 
113. APOCYNEZ. 
The Apocynea, remarkable for abounding in milky juice, are allied to the preceding 
as well as the following order; by the celebrated Jussieu, indeed, they were united 
with Asclepiadee. Both are allied to Rubiacee and Gentianee, from the former of which 
they are distinguished by their superior fruit, and from the latter by their minute 
embryo, double ovaria, and milkiness, and from both by their contorted flowers. 
The Apocynee are chiefly found in the tropical parts of the world, as in Asia, Africa, 
America, and New Holland, where many of them form trees of considerable size; 
but like many other tropical families, they extend in small numbers, and in a herbaceous 
state, beyond the strict limits of a tropical climate. Thus we have Apocynum in Siberia 
and N. America, Vinca in the latter as well as in Europe ; Amsonia occurs in Japan, and 
Carissa as far south as the Cape of Good Hope. The Oleander, Nerium odorum, which 
I was delighted on first recognizing, growing wildly luxuriant on the banks of rivulets, 
at the foot of the Nahn Hills, is found in similar situations, or on the sides of water- 
courses in Syria, Egypt, and Barbary, and-in the South of Spain, on the banks of the 
Guadalquiver- Fe . : 
In India they chiefly prevail in the Peninsula and the southern parts of the Bengal 
Presidency, as the forests of Silhet, from whence they extend to those bounding 
Nepal, and southwards into the Burmese territories and the Malayan Peninsula, and 
from that into the Islands. These belong to the genera Beaumontia, Holarrhena, 
Cryptolepis, Alstonia, Willoughbeia, Melodinus, Hunteria, and Ophioxylon. Urceola is 
confined to the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra, and Alycia does not extend further 
north. Vallaris, Wrightia, Carissa, and Strychnos, extend from thence into New 
Holland, where are also found Parsonsia, and Tabernemontana, which also occur as 
well as Echites and Cerbera in both India and America. Strophanthus is common to 
India 
