AXACARDIACEJS. 519 



* *■ Leaves simple. 

 X Petids variousli/ enlarged under the fiu'd. 



SwrxToxiA, Griffith. 

 Sepals 5. Stamens 5. Drupe sessile and subtended by the wing-like petals. 



X Leaves opaque and t/laucous beneath. 

 S. ScnwExcKii, Teysm. and liinn. Tropical forests of Chittagong, Pegu ll;inge, 



and Tenasscrini. 

 Pedieels ^-1 line lung. Petals hardly a line long. Drupes oblong. 



X X Leaves one-eoluured and ylosxy. 



S. GEiFFiTnir, Tvz. Mergui. 



Loaves greyish green, the nerves and net-venation con.spieuous. Pedieels 3-5 

 lines long. Petals 2 lines long. 



S. Helfeki, H. f. Tenasscrim. 



As the above, but leaves dark-brown, the net-venation obsolete. Drupes obovoid. 



MELAXoratncEA, IVallich. 



C'ali/.v spathacoous, 5-parted. Stamens numerous. Drtipe stalked and subtended 

 by the wing-like spreading petals. 



Thyt-si {generic). 



M. GLAEiiA, Wall. Tenasserim South of Tavoy. 



Leaves glabrous. Panicles usually minutely puberulous. Fruit-stalk nearly 

 1^ inch long, slender. 



M. TjsiTATA, Wall. Ava. Pegu Eangc. Tenasserim up to 3000 feet. 



Leaves beneath and panicles pubescent or villous. Fruit-stalk short and thick. 



Mason writes : " The celebrated blaok-varnish tree is cultivated in the Tenas- 

 serim Provinces, but I never saw it growing there spontaneously. In Toung-ngoo, 

 however, it is so abundant in the forests, that in sonu' of the Christian villages, the 

 posts of the chapels are exclusively of this tree, and it makes very tine timber, the 

 lignum vitte of Pegu. The varnish, says Major lierdmore, mixed with the ashes of 

 bones, is used as a paste for sticking glass on bo.xes and images. Native doctors also 

 use it as a \ermifuge for children, tlie dose being a (juarter of a tiekal of varnish to 

 half a tiekal of jaggeiy" (coarse sugar). 



The term lignum vita is not a happy one, as it is of no extraordinary hardness, 

 and in appearance tlio wood, when polished, clo.soly resembles Jfaliogany. Its weight 

 is 54lbs. The ' varnish,' or sap])y exudation, is a thick yellowish clay-coloured fluid, 

 which flows from incisions in the hark, and turns a brilliant black on drying. Natives 

 dread cutting the live tree, owing to the irritating (luality of tlie sap which sjiurts out 

 under the axe. The timber would, I think, become a favourite one in Euro])e if 

 introduced into the market, and the tree deserves propagation in localities .suited to 

 it. It abounds in JFartaban. 



X X I'rtah not enlarging after Jhiwering. 

 -\- Calyx-tuhe much enlarging and heeioning Jleshg, either bearing the superior nut 

 or more or less inclosing the same and forming an inferior drupe. 



f JVut more or less inclosed in thefleshg calyx. Ovary inferior. 



Dkimycaki'Us, ITooJcer, f. 



Petals imbricate in bud. Stamens 5. Stglc 1, with a capitate stigma. 



D. liACKMosus, lloxb. Chittagong and Eastern Slopes of Pegu Range. 



The genus hardly differs from Nnthoprgia, except in the free ovary and in the 

 attachment of the ovules, and stands much in the same relationship to it as Holigarna 

 albicans does to Scmccarpus (Kurz). 



