3j2 Mr. Colebrooke's Description 



Java, and the most deadly of the two which have been there em- 

 ployed for that nefarious purpose. Neither M. Leschenault nor 

 Dr. Horsfield, who has also noticed it*, saw the fructification. 

 But the first of those naturalists has concluded (I presume from 

 the habit) that it is a Strychnos. The plant which I take to be 

 nearly allied to it, if not specifically the same, and of which I 

 have examined the fruit, is an undoubted Strycluios. It grows 

 in the mountains and forests north and east of Silhet in Bengal ; 

 where, from numerous other instances, the flora is known to par- 

 take largely of that which belongs to the Malayan peninsula and 

 archipelago. The mountains confining the province of Silhet 

 seem to be the boundary, in the geography of plants, between 

 the hither and remoter India, between the cis-gangetic and trans- 

 gangetic regions. 



The specimen of this Strjjclinos was sent to me by Mr. M. R. 

 Smith, who, without being himself conversant with botany, has 

 laboured assiduously in advancing the science by collecting spe- 

 cimens of indigenous plants from countries contiguous to that 

 sequestered province, and by communicating his acquisitions to 

 the botanical garden at Calcutta. 



The flowers of this plant have not been seen by me. But the 

 examination of the fruit authorized the pronouncing of it to be 

 a Strychnos; which has been verified by Dr. Wallich, the present 

 superintendant of the botanical establishment at Calcutta. It 

 differs from Leschenault's description and drawing, as the leaves 

 are ovate, acuminate ; his elliptic, acute. Dr. Horsfield desig- 

 nates the leaves of the Javanese species as in pairs, or pinnate in 

 two or three pairs ; egged, spear-shaped, terminating in a long 

 narrow point. Nevertheless, the prominent character of the in- 

 crassated tendrils, noticed by Leschenault, raises a surmise that 



* Bat. Tram. 7. 



the 



