Taccacee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 377 
found both about Madras and Calcutta and in Silhet. V. minor, nob., is a new species, 
from the neighbourhood of Allahabad. Blyxa (Saivala,Wall.), belonging to the same 
tribe, is a genus common to Madagascar and India. The species found in the latter has 
been figured by Dr. Roxburgh (Corom. Plant. t. 165), under the name of Vallisneria 
octandra. 
The tribe Stratiotidee has the genera Stratiotes and Hydrocharis in Europe, Limnobium 
in N.Amerfca, and Enhalus (Stratiotes acoroides, Linn. F.), in Ceylon and the Malayan 
Archipelago. Boottia is a new genus discovered by Dr.Wallich, along the banks of the 
Irrawady and on Taong Dong, and consists of the species, B. cordata, figured in Pl. 
Asiat. Rar. t.65, Ottelia, Pers. (Damasonium, Schreb.) has a species, O. ovalifolium, 
in New Holland, and another, O. (Damasonium, Roxb. Corom. PI. t. 165), alismoides, 
which is common to every part of India, and is also found in Egypt. A new species, 
.D. sessile, Wall. Cat. 5044. Ic. ined. 283, has been found both by Dr. Hamilton and 
Dr.Wight. A species of Hydrocharis is also enumerated by Dr.Wallich (H. cellulosa, 
Cat. 5042), as found in Gorakpore and Silhet. 
The Hydrocharidee are not possessed of any active properties, but from their bland 
_ and mucilagimous nature, some are employed for food, as Boottia cordata, of which the 
green parts are sold in the market at Ava, being eaten by the Burmese as pot-herbs: 
so both the leaves and fruit of Enhalus are eaten, both raw and cooked, in the Malayan 
islands. Hydrilla verticillata and similar plants are employed by the sugar-refiners 
of Saharunpore and Berhampore for covering the surface of their sugars, as clay is used 
in the West-Indies to permit the slow percolation of water. 
174. TACCACEZ. 
The Taccacee form a small order, allied on one hand to Aroidee and on another to 
Aristolochia, resembling the preceding orders in their inferior fruit, and Dioscoree in 
possessing radical tubers abounding in fecula. They are found in the warm parts of 
Asia, and consist of the genus Zacca, from which has been separated, though not very 
distinct, Ataccia, formed of Dr. Roxburgh’s Tacca integrifolia, Corom. Plant. t. 257, 
named 7’. aspera, in his Flora Indica, ii. p. 169. This species he describes as found 
in the hills behind Chittagong; while 7. evis,Wall., Ic. ined. No. 293, was found in 
Silhet, and by Dr. Hamilton in Goalpara. 7. pinnatifida, the best known species, is 
a native of the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas, Madagascar, and New Holland. It 
is found in herbaria from the Madras presidency, but Dr. Roxburgh mentions it only as 
introduced. The other species, 7. montana and T. dubia, are likewise found im the 
Moluccas; while 7. Rafflesiana, Jack, is found at Penang and Singapore. From 
the latter Dr. Jack also sent a species, which is there called ‘* Water Lily,” but was 
named by him 7. cristata, Wall. Ic. ined. 292. 
The plants of this family are possessed of some degree of acridity, both in their babe 
and in their herbaceous parts, as Rumphius informs us, that the tubers of 7. pinna- 
tifida, dubia, and montana, are rasped and macerated for four or five days in water, and 
3¢ a fecula 
