ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 23 
the order, Berberis, exists it would be a fruitless labour to pursue the inquiry. In the singular 
structure of the anthers, there is a striking analogy with Laurine and other orders, not other- 
wise akin to Berberidee. 
Essentiat, Cuaracter. Polypetalous, dicotyledons with fewer than 20 stamens, anthers 
18S 
_ with recurved valves ; ovary wholly superior : carpels solitary : leaves furnished with stipules. 
ous places in the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and of South America as far as 
n 
I have found them on the Neilgherries, Pulney mountains, and on the more elevated regions 
of Ceylon; but none under 5,000 feet of elevation above the sea. Mr, Royle has several species 
usot. This extract, he considers the Lyceum of Dioscorides. He adds “ The rusot is much 
used by native practitioners, as an external application, both in the incipient and advanced stage 
of Ophthalmia ; it is frequently also employe by European practitioners, either alone, or with 
equal parts of Opium and alum rubbed up in water, and applied round the eve. I have seen it 
particularly useful when the acute symptoms have subsided and the eye is so much swollen as to 
prevent the effectual aplication of any other remedy. By one surgeon of rank and experience, 
it was found particularly useful in the ophthalmia with which the European soldiers were 
fflicted on their return from Egypt; and Mr. Playfair, the translator of the Taleef-Shureef, 
says, it is perhaps the best application in Ophthalmia, ever used.” 
So far as I have been able to learn this medicine is quite unknown in Southern India, I 
would therefore suggest, on the strength of the above very respectable authorities, that some of 
this extract should be prepared from the species found on the N eilgherries, which are the same 
as those found on the Himalayas, and subjected to experiment. 
n a commercial point of view the species represented is not undeserving of notice, one of 
the first European chemists (Vauquelin) havingascertained it to beinferior to few woods for dyinga 
yellow colour, a fact, the value of which is enhanced, not less by the facilities of exportation to 
the coast, by the recently formed roads, than by the extent to which it may be supplied ; th 
species having a wide range of location along the western range of mountains. Mr. Drury in 
is report on the commercial products of the Coimbatore district’ mentions this shrub, addin 
“* that, from experiments which have been made, the root of the tree yields the finest dye.” 
He submits some samples of cloth dyed from the wood, the colours of which I have attempted 
to imitate on the three squares in the accompanying plate, whether these will be found perma- 
nent, technically “ fast colours” remains to be ascertained, much of that property depending on 
the mordants used for fixing them. 
Remarks on Genera AnD Spgcizs. As only one genus of Berberidee has yet been met 
