P 
89 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
Choripetalum. The following character of Samara I take from Linneus’ genera Plantarum which will, I think, 
bear me out in adopting Dr. Arnott’s opinion as to the identity of the two genera. 
Calyx minute 4-parted acute persistent. Corolla 4-petals ovate sessile with a longitudinal furrow at 
the base. Stamens 4, filaments long subulate immersed in the furrow. Anthers subcordate. Pistil. Germen 
ovate half the length of the coralla, ending in a cylindrical style. Stigma funnel shaped. Pericarp a round 
drupe. Seed solitary. “His essential character is—Calyx 4-parted, Corolla 4-petaled, Stamens immersed in the 
base of the petals, Stigma infundibuliform. Both these embrace all the essentials of a precise Botanical gene- 
rie character as perfectly as all those embodied in Alph. DeCandolle’s more extended one, and prove clearly 
enough that he truly had a genuine species before him, when he constructed his character of the genus and not 
Memecylon as D. C.’s remark under Myrsine Jeta would lead us to suppose. 
Our plant must therefore revert to the older generic name since it perfectly agrees with the Linnean 
character so far as it goes ; and, perhaps, along with it, two species described by Roxburgh under the name of 
Samara, one from the Circars the other from the Moluccas, which D. C. does not seem to have taken up, as 
I cannot find any notice of them in any of his Monagraphs, of the order. 
The genus is asmall one, but will probably be found more extensive than is now surmised, as there is 
room to suspect that one, at least, and probably more, may be found referred to the genus Myrsine which it, in 
some respects, resembles, being principally distinguished by its quaternary not quinary flowers, the flowers in 
Myrsine being occasionally so deeply parted as to become almost polypetalous. I think I have observed in 
this, as well as in Embelia, that when they flower at irregular seasons nearly all the flowers are imperfect and 
sterile, while at other seasons, nearly every flower (judging from the quantities of fruit produced) seems fertile. 
The polygamous tendency therefore adverted to by DeCandolle in both characters is, perhaps, not owing to 
some plants being uniformly sterile and others fertile, as the same plants seem to me to be both at different 
times. My opportunities however, for close observation have not been such as to enable me to assure myself 
of the existence of this curious anomaly, still less to assure myself of the seasons at which they respectively 
occur. The same thing, it strikes me, also occurs in both the species of Iliz found at Ootacamund. _ The spe- 
cimen of Samara, here represented, seems either taken from a male plant or to have been gathered during the 
sterile season, which I think is the cold one immediately after the rains, as all the flowers seem deficient in the 
ovary, those that flower in spring are I think fertile. They flower at both seasons. 
SAMARA AURANTIACA (R W. Choripetalum auran- — Neilgherries also Malabar, flowering during the dry 
~ p : season. When in ower the branches are quite 
at both ends, entire, coriaceous, long petioled : racemes covered with the numerous racemes of bright orange 
—— shorter than the leaves, lon er than the petiols, coloured flowers. The leaves vary considerably in 
gor te Sangean as long as the pe Is : petals linear size, being from three to six inches long by from 14 to 
aut baer — = —— pa de orn ay petals, 2 broad, usually ending in a blunt acumen. 
MYRSINE. 
Flowers polygamo-dioicous quaternary or quinary. Calyx 4-5-cleft. Corolla 4-5-parted. Stamens free, 
filaments inserted into the base of the corolla. Anthers 2-celled erect lanceolate glanduloso-acute, dehiscing 
Jongitudinally. Pollen (dry) sperical. Ovary globose, style cylindrical, stigma capitate papillose, irregularly 
lobed or fimbriated. Placenta sperical depressed at the apex. Ovules 4 or 5 peltate, amphitropous. Drupe 
pets ace putanicnt rabeaniee tary Seed solitary.—Shrubs or trees, with alternate coriaceous leaves ; axillary 
ascicled flowers ; imbricating caducous bracts : flowers often 4 or 5 androus, in the same plant, small: male 
ones larger: stigma in the female flowers sometimes large, coloured. 
This is a large genus of which Alph. D. C. enumerates 75, more or less perfectly known, species. 
pene ne of these, satlicienaly well described to be considered known, are about equally divided between the 
and new worlds, 31 belonging to the latter. They are mostly of tropical origin but in India, so far as I am 
aware, seek the cooler tlimates of Alpine regions, 
