357 



THE GEEWIAS OF KOXBUKGH. 

 By J. E. Drummond, B.A., F.L.S. 



(Concluded from p. 337.) 



From Eottler's herbarium, now incorporated at Kew, it is 

 fairly evident that the early workers in India had not succeeded 

 in distinguishing the true hirsuta of Vahl from G. flavescens Juss., 

 that in fact they looked upon the whole series covered by Nos. 9, 

 11, 12, and possibly 13 of the Flora Indica as varieties of a single 

 species, for which, on learning from the followers of Linnaeus that 

 it could not be placed under his G. orientaUs, they proposed the 

 name of G. montana. For a time Eoxburgh continued to name 

 specimens of " G. montana" which were true hirsuta Vahl as 

 " G. salvifolia" ; later, as in his unpublished figure No. 226, he 

 proposed to call this species " tomentosa," either with respect to 

 Jussieu's description of the Javan plant, or, more probably, not 

 knowing tliat the title was preoccupied, independently with 

 reference to an obvious character. Ultimately he restricted 

 "salvifolia" to G. Bothii (cf. tab. ined. 225), and substituted 

 Vahl's hirsuta for his own "tomentosa" on the authority, most 

 likely, of a letter to Eottler from Vahl of May 20th, 1797, in 

 which Vahl announced that the plant sent as " tomentosa " differed 

 from the type of G. hirsuta (Symbol, i. 34) forwarded by Koenig 

 only in being less hairy ; meantime he had seen that the plant, 

 which is in fact the G. flavescens of Jussieu, differed essentially 

 from " G. montana" QMdi he had it well figured in tab. 224 as 

 " G. bijoartita," a name never published, founded on a character 

 which, as he duly noted, marked it off in any case from G. hirsuta. 

 Finally he was induced to refer this species to the G. carjnnifolia 

 of Juss., a close ally it is true, but quite distinct, occupying a 

 different climatic zone, and confined to parts of Western and 

 Central Africa. It is to this species probably that the name 

 "yilosa" and in part the characters of No. 12 were originally 

 meant to be applied by Eoxburgh. The name "'pilosa" he got 

 doubtless from Smith, and when (for G. flavescens) he amended 

 that to " carjnnifolia " Juss., he evidently considered that he 

 was at liberty to take it up again for a new form which he had 

 received from " the interior parts of Bengal." 



Wight & Arnott's explanation of the disconcerting assertion 

 made under " G. inlosa E." that pilosa E. has two-celled, " G. hir- 

 sutaNixhl" but one-celled, "nuts" is at least plausible, but in 

 suggesting that " G.pilosa E." was only known to the author of 

 the Flora Indica from garden examples, they have surely relied 

 too much on negative evidence. Eoxburgh was doubtless well 

 acquainted with Jlavescens Jussieu in the Circar Mountains, while 

 the plant which he got from the interior of Bengal was surely the 

 North Indian Grcwia, to which we may for the present refer as 

 G. helicterifolia Wall. This has not unfrequently been collected, 

 among others, by Sir J. D. Hooker, in the hilly country between 

 Eaniganj and Mongir on the right bank of the Ganges. William 



