ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. H 



fleshy, variously lobed, sometimes conferruminate, the radicle usually minute and concealed be- 

 tw^eu the lobes. But, as nearly all of them have at different times been referred to Eugenia, 

 even (^aryophyllus itseU^ I, to prevent further confusion, retain that name for the restored genus. 

 Adopiin^ these chriracters for the genus I find that our Eugenia acris W. & A. and E. Pimen/a, 

 D.C. do not belong to it, neither are they referable to Myrcia^ but assuredly associate much 

 better with the latter than the former genus. 



To some it may appear, that this is too sweeping a reform and that these extensive reduc- 

 tions are neither required nor justified in the case to which they are applied. Should such an ob- 

 jection be urged, I have only to reply that, the most sedulous examination has not shown me 

 how otherwise the difficulties I have indicated can be obviated, unless by the formation of addi- 

 tional genera each as artificial as those I propose to reduce. 



My first thought was to form new genera and I had actually prepared definitions for two, 

 amply distinguished so far as paper distinctions were concerned, but which, when compared, 

 not with written characters but with their congeners, by laying the specimens side by side and 

 minutely comparing the whole in every part, marking the gradual transitions of external forms, 

 the uniformity of internal structure, in the organs of fructification, and finally the general uni- 

 formity of habit, I saw no alternative but to proceed as I have done and at once reunite the 

 species, now distributed under Eugenia^ Caryophyllus^ Jambosa^ Syzygium and jlcmena into 

 one vast genus. The correctness of this view I shall endeavour to establish by, in the first in- 

 stance, presenting here a synoptical arrangement of nearly all the Indian species of the tribe 



Myrteae with which I am acquainted, and afterwards largely illustrating the genus Eugenia by 

 devoting many plates to its elucidation in my Icones- 



The characters I have assigned to the genera are brief but comprehensive, being anxious 

 to avoid the introduction of any terms not absolutely required or in any way tending to 

 exclude by unnecessary refinement, any species that really belong to them. 



Of the following genera Eugimia is by far the largest, exceeding in the number of its species 

 all the others put together, and as its species present among themselves a considerable variety 

 of form, it became absolutely necessary to distribute them into sections or sub-genera to facili- 

 tate the determination of the species. The plan I have adopted for this purpose aims at keeping 

 together, as much as possible, the species referred by DeCandoIIe and others to the several 

 genera I have reduced. By this means comparatively little inconvenience will be caused as each 

 sub-genus retains the name it bore as a genus- The characters of these subgenera are neces- 

 sarily somewhat arbitrary and, on a few occasions, scarcely applicable to some of the species 

 referred to them. This however is unavoidable in a genus so natural, and it is hoped, will not 

 be objected to as figures of all such will be given in the Icones. The characters of the sub- 

 genera are almost entirely taken from variations of the calyx, which are always obvious, 

 aided by the inflorescence which is equally prominent. Two of these sub-genera are 

 again divided into sections by the inflorescence being terminal or lateral. This last 

 character, though in common use, I have found of difficult application in practice and 

 very liable to mislead unless restricted by definite rules. These I have endeavoured to supply 

 by considering all those lateral which spring from old wood, such for example, as from the ramuli 

 of previous years or naked branches from the scars of fallen leaves : while those arising from 

 young leafy shoots of the same season and forming a terminal corymbus, though all axillary I 

 have considered terminal. By adhering to this rule I have in one or two instances referred spe- 

 cimens with terminal cymes to lateral sections, because the peduncles really rose from old wood 

 and were only accidentally terminal, through the abortion of the shoot of the current season, which 

 was proved by other instances where it was produced. Thus limited I have found this a good 

 character as indicating a marked peculiarity of habit. 



The great number of species referable to the sub-genus Syzygium reudiexixxgd, further divi- 

 sion necessary, I then had recourse to the petals, grouping those with cohering petals in one 

 section and those with free expanding ones in another. This I at first expected to find a char- 

 acter of easy application, but in practice was disappointed, as both, not very rarely, occur in the 

 same plant. All but one of those referred to the latter section have most unequivocally the habit 



of Syzygium but with the free expanding petals of Jambosa and easily form the transition to that 



genus* 



