ILLUStRAtlONS OP INDIAN BOTANY- 



215 



employed in domestic practice but not one, so far as I am aware, in the practice of the 

 Physician. Nearly all the species of Premna exhale a heavy most disagreeable musky smelly 



when bruised, and so do some if not all the Vitices — V. negimdo and trifoUata certainly do 



and on that account are often dried and mixed with cloths or put between the leaves of books 

 to prevent attacks of Insects. The Natives hold the leaves of both in considerable esteem as 

 medicinal agents, and prescribe them in various forms, but I suspect faith in these supposed 

 properties has often more effect than any active property they possess. 



The timber of the Tectona grandis is about the most highly esteemed of any in India ; 

 that of nearly all other trees is spoken of as Jnngle-wood, and inferior. Time does not now 

 permit, otherwise some remarks might have been offered on the subject of the preservation 

 of the Teak forests and the recent fearful waste and destruction of that valuable, I had ahnost 

 said invaluable, tree in all our teak forests, without a single step being taken either to keep 

 up the stock or preserve young trees from the ruthless hands of contractors and others licensed 

 to cut Teak timber. Measures are now, I believe, in progress to arrest the ruinous destruction 

 that has for some years been going on, and it is to be hoped the Directors will succeed in their 

 object, as otherwise the stock in hand will soon be exhausted. Griffith's Hemigymniay is 

 described as attaining dimensions nearly equal to the Teak, and yielding timber of great 

 strength and elasticity, but it does not seem to have such an extensive range, and possibly if 

 attempted to be propagated elsewhere would not succeed. Plants so local as it appears to be, 

 and" so limited in their geographical range, being generally difficult of propagation. 



Remarks on Gexera and Species. For the reasons stated above, my observations under 

 this head, must unavoidably be brief, indeed almost confined to the subtribe SymphoremecE^ which, 



to my set being very complete and Walpers' account of them imperfect, I was induced 



owing to 



to scrutinize with considerable care. 



The result of that examination I published in the Icones, 



in which I have given figures of 10 species; Schauer's list extends only to seven. A more 

 recent examination of the ovary has induced me somew^hat to alter my views of its structure. 

 In the following remarks it is said to approach Myrsmeace<E. This is not exactly the case, as 

 I now find it is distinctly 2-celled, but with the partitions so thin that, in a vertical section, they 

 are easily torn and apt to be overlooked unless expressly looked for, giving the appearance of 

 an erect central placentiferous axis, from the apex of which the ovules are suspended. The 

 ovary is however correctly described by Schauer as 2-celled (except at the apex) with 2 collateral 

 ovules in each, pendulous from the apex. They are exactly as in Amcennece, not amphitro- 

 pous but rather anatropousand, as in AvicennecB, only one is fecundated. These striking agree- 

 ments betw^een the two groups of plants led me then to suggest the elevation of Sympkoremem 

 to the rank of a distinct tribe, in place of retaining it as a subtribe of YitecB, a view which 

 my more recent examination has greatly tended to confirm. 



The difference of the inflorescence and flowers, and general habit, stand as an almost 

 insuperable obstacle in the way of its association with Amcennecr as an order._ On the genus 

 Jvicennia I at the same time offered some remarks bearing on the discrimination of 2 species 

 figured in the Icones ; these also I introduce here in connexion with the remarks on Sym- 

 phoreme^. Beyond these, nothing occurs to me demanding notice, having already referred 

 to the discrepancies of Gmelina ; Schauer's Monograph being, so far as I can judge, generally 



so perfect as to leave little to be desired. 



Stmphoremej:. 



This small group of plants, brought together as a sub- 

 tribe of Vitice(B, ought, it appears to me, to constitute 

 the type of a tribe, or even a separate order, allied to, 

 but distinct from, Verhenace(B, differing as they do from 



the rest of the order in the inflorescence, the ovary, 

 the placentation, and the seed. It is thus defined by 

 Schauer, in DCs Prod.: 



i 



"Sub-tribe SriapHOREMEa:, cymes contracted glome- 



tate, few-flowered : involucrate. Corolla regular or bila- 



biate Stamens 4-5, or indefinite. Capsule coriaceous, 



" ■ -Flowering shrubs 



indehiscent, 1-seeded by abortion. 



with simple leaves." 

 This definition, so far as it goes, seems correct. 



The 



cymes might, perhaps, with equal or greater propriety 

 have been called simple umbels, and, having an invo- 

 lucre they convey the idea of an umbel, rather than 

 that of a cyme. The involucre itself, constitutes a 

 neculiar feature, enoneously described in the generic 

 character of Symphorema as «(>-8-phyllum " but cor- 

 rectly in the description of the species, as being com- 

 posed of 2 bracts and two bracteoles to each. Such is 



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