ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 7 
Grocrapnicat Disrrisution. This is peculiarly a trepical order, almost as exclusively 
so, as fanunculacee is an extra-tropical one, a few only extending beyond the 30th degree of 
latitude. The species are natives alike of both hemispheres, most numerous in the southern. 
Australia may indeed be said to be the head quarters of the order, 50 species, natives of that 
country, being known and described by DeCandolle,when Asia and America could only boast of 
21 between them, and Africa of 3; several however have since been added to the list, from both 
Asia and America, and one or two from Africa, but probably very many yet remain undis- 
covered in so vast a continent as Australia. Dr. Wallich has figured several new ones in his 
splendid Plante Asiatice Rariores. Blume has described eight in his additions, (Bijdragen) to 
the flora of Java, and there are still several undescribed species in Ceylon in addition to the 
expressed in the following brief summary. “ Fine plants, almost exclusively confined to tropical 
It is certainly, to me, a matter of surprise, to find plants so fine as all the species of Dillenia 
are, so totally neglected in our gardens and lawns. From the facility of their culture and propaga- 
y ! 
As stated above, little is known regarding the properties of Dilleniacee : the leaves and 
bark of several are astringent, and decoctions of them are used as gargles and as washes for 
ill conditioned sores. ‘The fruit of most of the species of Dillenia are acid, and used by the 
Natives in their curries, while the enlarged fleshy calyx of the ripe fruit, sometimes furnishes 
: ith «6 ley ¢ 2? 
Europeans with “a tolerably pleasant jelly. r : 
_ Remarks on tHe Genera, &c. Roxburgh, as appears from his Flora Indica, was only 
acquainted with nine species of this order, which he referred to two genera 7etracera and 
Dillenia, These nine are now distributed among four genera, his Tetracera Sarmentosa being 
the Delima Sarmentosa of all modern authors, and his Dillenia Pentagyna having been raised 
to the rank of a distinct genus, though, as it appears to me, on insufficient grounds, under the 
name of Colbertia Coromandelina. To these four original Asiatic genera, several others have 
recently been added. Vahl founded Sehumacheria on a Ceylon plant, DeCandolle Trachytella 
on one from Cochin China, Jack 4erotrema fora Malayan one, and Blume Capellia for a 
Javanese one, Lindley Actinidia for one from Nepaul. To these it may be added, that 
Wormia has been discovered in Ceylon, making up the number of Asiatic genera to 10 out of 
26, the total number yet discovered. 
