146 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 
cies from Java alone, showing how much they augment near the equator. The Peninsular flora 
when we wrote only presented a list of 13 species, afew have since been added. 
Properties and Uses. These are of a high order and very varied character; here we 
find some pleasant fruits, valuable medicines, and useful timber. The fruit of Sandoricum, 
of some species of Lansium and of Milnea edulis, are eatable, having a watery cooling pleasant 
pulp; but generally, bitter, astringent, tonic qualities are the properties of this order. Some 
species however, are of a very different description, the juice of the bark being purgative and 
violently emetic. The bark of the Margosa or Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) has been bene- 
among the natives of this part of India, to cover the body with these leaves. From the fruit a 
very bitter oil is expressed. This like the olive oil is procured from the pulp of the fruit, not 
the kernel of the seed, and combines the bitter tonic properties of the plant, hence it is esteemed 
a useful anthelmintic, and is considered an excellent external. application in rheamatic cases, 
and in some cutaneous diseases. 
In the arts, the timber of the Neem tree, which is hard and durable, is found fit for ship- 
building, and that of some species of Melia, which attain a large size, there is reason to believe 
is equally valuable, though on this point my information is imperfect. 
mia, Munronia, Melia, 
zadirachta and Malea of the Peninsular flora belong. ‘lo the latter, distinguished by having 
exalbuminous seed, thick cotyledons, a short radicle, commonly concealed between the coty- 
ledons, and alternate simply pinnated leaves, with entire leaflets - Milnea, Amoora, Walsura, 
this work, has only three known species, one from Silhet, A. Wallichii,( Turrea pinnata, Wall.) 
one from Ceylon, M. pumila, R. W. Icones Pl. Ind. Or. No. 91, (Melia pumila, Moon) and 
first supposed M. pumila a new species of that genus, and it was not until after very careful 
examination and comparison that I ascertained they were distinct: the principal distinguishing 
marks are the petals being united to the base of the staminal tube, not free, the 5 not 3-celled 
ovary, the superposed, not collateral ovules, and by having a membranous tube sheathing the 
ovary and base of the style. 
Jussieu and Meisner adopt Blume’s genus Aphanamixis in preference to Roxburgh’s 
Amoora, a much older name. — eran does not seem to be aware of the existence of Rox- 
1s, and puts the question “ An tamen Amoora, (Roxb.) exclusis omni- 
bus spec. preter A. Rohitukam, (W. and A. p- 119,) servanda, ?” in ch omni oh a very unne- 
‘unless we are to depart from the old established rule of priority, which 
Roxburgh’s name, as being the older, ,whatever be the 
st be adopted in preference to a more recent one. 
Aphanamizis, Jussien enumerates three species not including 
two described by Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. under the 
ards figured in the Coromandel Plants under the 
§ Deen in the mean time occupied by Mr, R. Brown, 
genus I have now three Peninsular species, namely, .4. cucu- 
W: and A. an one apparently a new species, with subsessile fruit, 
1¢ fruit, leaves no doubt of the genus, and the absence of a peduncle either in 
at once distinguishes it from the other two. 
