77 



alternate, rather long-petioled, ovate, acute, often acuminate 

 and varying in breadth, about three inches long, entire, with 

 somewhat re volute edges, smooth, glaucous beneath, nerves 

 lateral and irregularly alternate. Petioles round, an inch 

 long. Peduncles from the young shoots at the extremity of 

 the branches, axillary or lateral, terminated by a short, few- 

 flowered panicle, and generally longer than the young leaves 

 from whose axils they spring. Bracts none. Perianth 

 funnel-shaped, 6-parted, yellowish. Stamens 9, arranged in 

 two rows, the outer six naked, the inner three furnished at the 

 base with two yellow glands : filaments flat : anthers adnate, 

 the cells opening with a longitudinal valve or operculum. 

 Style as long as the stamens. Stigma obtuse, 4-cornered. 

 Drupe seated on the enlarged cup-shaped persistent truncated 

 base of the perianth, globose, containing a 1-seeded nut. 

 Embryo inverse. Cotyledons hemisphserical. Radicle superior, 

 within the edge of the cotyledons. 



Obs. This species has considerable affinity to L. cupularia. 

 The fruit has a strong balsamic smell, and yields an oil, 

 w^hich is considered useful in rheumatic affections, and has 

 the same balsamic odour as the fruit itself. An infusion of 

 the root is drunk in the same manner as Sassafras, which it 

 appears to resemble in its qualities. The wood is strong and 

 durable when not exposed to wet, and in that case considered 

 equal to Teak. Kayo Gadis signifies the Virgin Tree, whence 

 the specific name. 



May this not be the Oriental Sassafras Wood, mentioned 

 under the article Laurus in Rees' Cyclopaedia ? 



GOMPHIA* SUMATRANA. W.J. 

 Decandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Ochnace^. 

 Foliis lanceolatis vel oblongo-ovalibus acuminatis obtuse 

 denticulatis nitidis sub 5-nerviis, stipulis intrapetiolaribus 

 deciduis, paniculis terminalibus. 



* " I strongly suspect that the plant which I have described in Roxburgh's 

 Fl. Ind. V. 2. p. 305, under the name of Euthemis elegantissima, is a species of 

 Gomphia. Can it be possibly the luxuriant shoots of Jack's species ? Its leaves 

 are, without exception, the most beautiful I have ever met with." — N. W., 1830. 



