ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 201 



albumen mucilaginous; cotyledons foliaceous, corrugated, radicle incurved, inferior.— Herbs, 

 undershrubs, shrubs or trees, stems straight, procumbent or twining, parasitical and leafless in 

 Cuscuta, Leaves alternate, simple, entire or lobed, sessile or petioled. Flowers one or several 

 on axillary peduncles forinering cymes, racemes, umbels or corymbs or often capitula; pedicels 

 often bibracleate; bracts sometimes enwrapping the flowers. Roots simple, or tuberous. Pube- 

 scence often shining and beautiful. Choisy. 



Affinities. This order, as placed here, seems to stand in its most natural position: the 



Hyd 



Ehretiaceos 



) 



interrupted on the other. 

 Verbenacece into Labiatco. 



This however is not the view Lindley takes ; he places JsclepiadecB and CordiacecB next each 

 other, between Solanaceos and Convolvulaceoe ; Oleaceoe next Solanaceco^ ^wdi closes his sub- 

 albuminous Solanal Alliance with Polemoniacecc^ a very albuminous order. As a whole, his 

 Solanal Alliance appears to me a very heterogeneous one and far from natural, but that is 

 perhaps matter of opinion. 



Geographical Distribution. This large order greatly preponderates towards the 

 equator, its species becoming fewer as the latitude rises until they cease altogether on the con- 

 fines of the frigid zones. Three species are natives of England, besides tw^o or three species 

 of Cuscuta. In America they are more numerous than in Asia, but are generally diff'used 

 over all the warmer parts of the globe. 



A 



Properties and Uses. The roots of a number of the species of this order abound in 

 a resinous milky juice, strongly purgative, to which we are indebted for the active cathartic 

 properties of Jalap and Scammony. Of the numerous Indian species of the order but few are 

 employed medicinally and only one, so far as I am aware, as a purgative, namely, the Ipomea 

 Turpethum. I never myself prescribed it, but have been often told that it possesses considerable 

 activity, and acts without griping or uneasiness. The leaves of Argyreia speciosa are said by 

 the natives to act as a discuticnt, and relieve the pain of boils and cutaneous inflammations. 

 The only case in which I have seen it used it did more, it acted as a visicatory and 

 entirely removed the cuticle, thereby much augmenting the sufferings of the poor patient, 

 who was affected with anurism of the arteria innominata, then projecting above the edge of 

 the clavicle. 



The sweet potatoe, Batatus esculentiis, is a member of this order, and a very useful one, 

 for, being of easy cultivation and supplying much nourishment, it is in general use as an esculent. 



Remarks on Genera and Species. In my introductory remarks I adverted to Choisy's 

 want of care in determining the genera to which his species belonged. In a letter of mine, 

 published some years ago in Hooker's Botanical Journal (Vol. 3, p. 199), I stated that his Argy- 

 reia ciineata had a 4-celled ovarv, and was therefore, according to his definition, of the genus, 

 a species of Rivea ; to which the author replies, in De Candolle's Prodromus (p. 827 under 

 Rivea) : "Hnic (Argyreia cuneata) CI. Wight tribult ovarium 4-loculare quod uon adhue recog 



uoscere potui." , . -.i t. 



This unexpected remark induced me not merely to re-examine that species with much care, 

 in both the recent and dry state, but to extend ray examination to many other species of his 

 genus Argyreia. The result proved almost as unexpected as the remark which led to the 

 inquiry, and induced me to publish in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History a brief summary 

 of the conclusions at which I arrived. As that Periodical is, I beheve, m the hands of but few 

 of the readers of this work, I shall republish an extract from that paper, which 

 prove that I have not been premature in arriving at the conclusions stated above. . 



Between the genera pLna and Bre^eria. ^^l^^l!r^,^Ttl::^ 1^ 



will 



cable confusion. On .„- 

 they did not correspond 



Rowhu 



the exact similarity was' immediately obvious, leaving no doubt, in my mind, of the generic 



