24 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
are natives of Mysore but I do not recollect of any below that elevation, and these only on 
hills there. The Hypericum Mysorense is perhaps the most common on the hills and is 
indeed avery showy plant. ‘The one here delineated is so very rare, that I can only refer to 
one station, namely, on a swampy plain, known by the grandiloquent name of “ New Eng- 
land” near the Devil’s Gap above Sisparah, there forming a single clump around two or three 
stunted trees. In Europe, the species of this genus are found inhabiting mountains and val- 
leys, marshes and dry plains, meadows and heaths, in short are to be met with almost every 
where, and always conspicuous, especially towards the beginning of autumn, by their large 
yellow flowers, that being the prevailing colour of the tribe. 
In its affinities this order is nearly allied to Guttifere so nearly indeed that many 
Botanists unite them and several other families into a class designated Guttifere, retaining 
for the old family, so called ; that of Clusiacee. The genus Xanthochymus almost unites these 
two families but is distiact from both, having the flowers of Hypericinee combined with the 
fruit and seed of Guttiferee or Clusiacee, that is, the flowers are quinary and stamens fascicled in 
groups as in Hypericum, while the carpels are one-seeded, and the structure of the seed the 
same asin Garcinia. ‘Thus the character of the flower forbids its being associated with Gar- 
finiee while that of the carpel and seed are equally opposed to its union with Hypericinee 
showing at once, that these two orders are quite distinct, and that it is equally removed from 
both. For these reasons I should propose that the genus Xanthochymus of Roxburgh form 
the type of a new order to be placed between the other two. 
For reasons stated in my Illustrations, vol. I. page 130—31. I still adopt the name 
Xanthochymus in preference to Stalagmitis, though opposed by all modera authors, Murray’s 
genus, as defined by him, being a hybrid, without a species to represent it, made up of a 
series of particularsculled from two quite distinct genera and forming, as a whole, such a com- 
bination as never met in any plant that ever grew. His Stalagmitis gambogioides the only 
species being partly Cambogia Gutta of Linneus and partly Xanthochymus ovalifolius 
Roxb. Which of the two is it to be taken as thé type of the genus? the one with 4 leaved 
calyx 4 petals and 4 lobed stigma; or the one with pentadelphous stamens and 3-seeded berries 
—they can’t both go together—if the former is chosen then it has an older name, being 
Cambogia of Linnzus : if the latter, pentadelphous stamens and three-seeded berries does 
not sufficiently characterize the genus, which has been long ago well defined by Roxburgh 
and his name generally adopted. One of these names must assuredly be suppressed and im 
my opinion the hybrid one, without a species to represent it, is the one to go. 
I. HYPERICUM— St. John’s Wort-Tutsan, 
Sepals 5, more or less connected at the base. Petals 5. Stamens usually very numerous. united at the base 
into 3-5 bundles, rarely somewhat distinct. Styles 3-5, distinct or rarely combined, persistent. Caspule 
unilocular or with several cells. Membranaceous, 3-5 vaived, many-seeded. Seeds roundish ; seed-coat dou- 
ble ; albumen none : embryo with semicylindrical cotyled Herbaceous or shrubby plants. Leaves opposite, 
or very rarely (in H. alternifolium, Vahl, Wall. L. n. 4806) alternate, sessile or nearly so, Flowers either 80- 
litary, in threes, cymose, corymbosely panicled, or umbellate, usually yellow.— W. and A. Prod, p. 99. 
