54 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
mittent fever; and the pulp of the fruit is greedily devoured by many birds. This 
last seems one of the most curious circumstances connected with this interesting tree. 
The seed, beat up with the white of an egg, is applied externally by the Natives as a discu- 
tient. The seed of another species, S'. potatorum, has the curious property, when rubbed 
on the inside of water vessels, of rapidly clearing muddy water, hence the common name 
of “clearing nut.” Its young fruit is made into a preserve and eaten by the Natives, but 
_ when ripe it acquires, in a milder degree, the properties of other species and is then 
prescribed as an emetic. Nothing seems known of the properties of the other two Hill 
plants of this family. 7 
The species of this family, with a very few exceptions, are of tropical origin, hence 
I presume their rarity on the Hills. One, however, another species of Gardneria, what- 
ever more, is found in Nepaul and Silhet. 
FAGRAA. 
Calyx bibracteate at the base, 5-cleft, lobes imbricated, obtuse. Corolla funnel-shaped, tube enlarged 
above, lobes oblique, twisted to the left in estivation, afterwards spreading, reflexed. Stamens free, in- 
serted on the middle of the tube; filaments subulate, protruding; anthers 2-celled, incumbent. 
imperfectly 2-celled; style filiform; stigma peltate with a depression in the middle. Berry fleshy, oval, 
placente pulpose. Seeds peltate, numerous, small, crustaceous, immersed in pulp; albumen copious, fleshy, 
or somewhat horny ; embryo transverse, as regards the hilum, sub-cylindrical; cotyledons about the length 
of the radicle, linear.—Trees or shrubs, sometimes twining, ramuli usually 4-sided. Leaves succulent, 
opposite, entire. Stipules sheathing within the petiol, often bedewed with a yellow resinous exudation. 
Cymes terminal, trichotomous ; flowers large, white. 
This is a large genus, for this order, as it includes 20 species, It is not one with which I am well 
acquainted, having only seen three species, A careful examination of these has, however, enabled me to 
introduce one or two slight corrections into De Candolle’s character. In, his character he calls the ovary 
two-celled, this I find is not the case in either of the two I have examined. In both it is, when examined 
at an earlier stage than is represented in the plate, 1-celled, the partial partitions from each side, not meet- 
ing in the centre, though they afterwards do so, but do not cohere. The tree here represented is not very 
unfrequent about Coonoor, but is not common. It is of low stature, of rather ungainly appearance, the 
leaves being all clustered, along with the large whitish flowers, on the ends of the youngest ramuli. The 
leaves themselves are much broader’above, perfectly smooth on both sides, thick, fleshy and veinless, quite 
entire on the margin. The flowers are generally in threes, of a dull white, approaching to cream colour, 
with long projecting stamens, The seed are small, rough, somewhat kidney-shaped, attached by the 
middle, the embryo nearly the length of the seed, lying across the hilum, of nearly equal thickness through- 
out and enclosed in a copious fleshy albumen 
I have also met with this tree at Courtallum, at a considerably lower elevation than Coonoor. My 
other species is from Malabar; and Ceylon claims a third, all the others are stated to be natives of the 
Eastern Islands and Tenasserim Coast, one is found in Silhet, 
1 e young ra aves fleshy, 4-6 inches long 
tuse a short petioled: stipules intra- and 2-3 broad near peduncles usually 
foliaceous, closely embracing the stem: peduncles 3 from the end e branch each with e 
termi te, 3-flowered: corolla sub-campanu- white flowers. Coroll nearly 3 inches long, some 
late, lobes revolute, obtuse: stigma peltate: berry thing between campanulate and wide infundibuli. 
elliptic, tape at both ends, pointed with the per- form. Stamens and style exserted Berry 
sistent base of the style, fleshy: small, sub- about 14 inch long. filled with fleshy pulp in which 
globose, rough: embryo shorter than the fleshy albu- numerous minute seeds nidulate. Seed 
nearly globose, testa ro ablumen copious, em- 
um and Coonoor, Neilgherries, floweri bryo axillary, teret ic] i 
during rainy ss Asinliia cseil x Sauk: ry ry, terete, radicle superior. 
