ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 135 
XXXV,—ERYTH ROXYLE. 
This is one of the smallest orders of the Indian flora, being at the time we published 
the Prodromus limited to one Peninsular species, the one here figured, one or two others have 
small trees, with ascending branches, the young shoots of which are often compressed and 
covered with acute imbricated scales. The leaves are alternate or rarely opposite, glabrous, 
with axillary stipules. The flowers are small, axillary, solitary, or several together, whitish or 
greenish, the peduncles furnished with bracts at the base. 
Calyx free, persistent, 5-parted: torus inconspicuous : petals 5, hypogynous, equal, alter- 
nate with the lobes of the calyx, broad at the base, and furnished with a plaited scale within, 
stamens 10, hypogynous, filaments united at the base: anthers erect, 2-celled, cells opening 
longitudinally by a lateral slit. Ovary 3-celled, two often imperfect or empty, with a solitary 
pendulous ovule in each: styles 3, distinct, or rarely cohering : stigmas capitate. Fruit drupa- 
cious, |-seeded, albumen horny. Embryo linear, straight: radicle superior round, straight. 
Cotyledons linear, foliaceous, 
Arrinitizs. This order was separated from Malpighiacee by Kunth, on account of the 
appendages of the petals, the presence of albumen in the seed, the fruit being often 1I-celled 
by abortion, and the peculiar habit. These however in the estimation of Dr. Lindley do not 
appear peculiarities enough to constitute it more than a subdivision of Malpighiacee, on which 
account he has restored it to that family as a suborder. In the propriety of this distribution I 
am inclined to coincide, though my limited acquaintance with this order, precludes my adopt- 
ing if. 
Grocrapuicat Distrisution. The West Indies and South America appear to be the 
head quarters of this order, but some species are found in the Mauritius and Madagascar, and 
a few (6 or 8) in India. The only species I have met with in Southern India are, the one here 
figured, and two from Courtallum, I have besides specimens of another from Ceylon, which I 
= mi Sethia acuminata, on account of the long acumen which terminates its elliptic oblong 
eaves, 
Properties anp Uses. The only notice I find under this head refers to a single South 
American species, the Erythroxylon coca, of which there is a very detailed account in Hooker’s 
ompanion to the Botanical Magazine. According to the writer of that paper, its effects are 
fully as deleterious as those of opium. The following extract from Lindley’s Flora Medica, gives 
an abbreviated summary of its effects. nee Y : 
* A powerful stimulant of the nervous system, affecting it in a manner analogous to opium. 
Less violent in its effects than that drug, but more permanent in its action, The Peruvians 
chew the leaves with finely powdered chalk, and the government of Potosi alone, derived a 
revenue of as much as 500,000 peso duros in the year 1583, from their consumption. 
Remarks on Genera AND Species. Two genera only are referred to this order, Ery- 
throrylon and Sethia, and of the last only 3 or 4 species are known. Three are natives o 
Southern India, and one from Ceylon. The continental ones may be thus briefly characterized. 
S. indica, leaves obovate, cuneate, styles united to the apex—S. lanceolata, leaves lanceo- 
ate, cuneate towards the base, styles united two-thirds of their length—S. erythroxyloides, 
leaves lanceolate, styles free to near the base, short. Dr. Lindley in the second edition of his 
natural system of Botany, with great propriety, in my opinion, reduces the last of these as being 
Separated on too trivial grounds, the union of the styles, a mark, which I cannot consider of 
idee value, though, for the sake of preventing unnecessary disturbance of established names, 
= here retained it. Mr. Arnott gives the following character of the Ceylon one in his 
____ Pagillus Plantarum Ind ; Orientalis. 
_Sethia acumi .) Leav It 2, elliptic ered, ealyx 5-cleft, segments ovate, acute, the styles 
. ia mata, (Arn.) Leaves a a elliptic hes fea tir cae: cgeun alone. 
_ Pomt, penninerved, paler beneath, pedicels axillary, Hab.— Ceylon. 
