THE GREWIAS OlF ROXBURGH 333 



interpretation (for whicli and for much other assistance the writer 

 is indebted to Dr. B. Daydon Jaclison) is, "has small red sour 

 berries. What is it called according to Species Plantarum? " 



Underneath Linne has written, " Gretoia ." This plant was 



duly published in 1768 in the Mantissa (p. 122) as G. asiatica, 

 wdth a description which can leave no question that what Linno 

 described was the cultivated " Phalsa." Wilklenow (ii. 2, 1166) 

 substituted Vahl's description for that of the Mantissa, and added 

 a citation from Sonnerat's Itinerary (ii. p. 191, t. 138). Sonnerat 

 had seen his example in a garden at Pondicherry ; he gives the 

 vernacular name as " Phalse," and his figure is an unmistakable 

 likeness of the garden "Phalsa" of some parts of India. At the 

 British Museum is a specimen obtained for Banks by Hove in 

 Guzerat (at Surat very hkely), named " G. asiatica Phalse." 

 Jussieu, in the Monograph already quoted at p. 92, describes 

 '' G. asiatica" from Sonnerat's Coromandel gathering, and notes 

 that the fruit is shaped like a cherry, reddish, and subacid ; the 

 tree is called "False." In the Kew Herbarium are specimens 

 gathered in the Botanic Garden at Pondicherry by Perottet, who 

 believed he had seen the same species " wild" in the Coimbatore 

 neighbourhood. He was thinking possibly of G. rotuncUfolia Juss. 

 These, as well as similar examples from Ceylon (C. P. 3785) and 

 the Mauritius, in certain respects approach G. sapicla Koxb. ; it 

 may here be said that G. sapida is the nearest Indian ally of 

 G. asiatica, also that the true asiatica has never been seen, and 

 is never likely to be seen (in India proper) out of a garden. The 

 contrary persuasion, which has led to much confusion, is due to 

 Eoxburgh's having hazarded a guess as to the origin of G. asiatica 

 (Fl. Ind. ii. 586), where he says " a native of various parts of India 

 and often cultivated in gardens." There is a sheet in the British 

 Museum herbarium which shows what Koxburgh supposed to be 

 the "wild state" of asiatica; it is a mere scrap, but seems near 

 G. elastica of Eoyle ; in any case it is perfectly distinct from the 

 main specimen, which is true asiatica Linn. 



It cannot be too clearly understood as regards G. asiatica L. 

 on the one hand, and the group of G. tiliafolia, G. vestita, and 

 their alhes on the other, that this is not a question of varieties or 

 " segregates." Whatever view may be held as to the value of the 

 different species that have been proposed within the group of 

 tilicefolia Vahl. (e. g. vestita and elastica) ; all of these are marked 

 off from G. asiatica by clear and generally constant characters, to 

 ignore which would be bringing back chaos. It is beside the 

 question to argue that G. asiatica does not occur, so far as our 

 present knowledge goes, spontaneously anywhere. The "Phalsa" 

 is found chiefly, if not solely, in the gardens of Muhammedans or 

 foreigners, and there are examples from North-western India of a 

 so-called " Phalsa," which is certainly not true asiatica, and may 

 be a substitute for an exotic species, the original home of which 

 remains to be discovered. Karl Schumann {Notizblatt dcs Konigl. 

 Bot. Gart. und Mus. iii. pp. 99-102) has made certain very perti- 

 nent remarks on G. asiatica. He observes, as Vahl had pointed 



