on the Ilortus Malabaricus, Part IF. 185 



names of Rlieede and Bontius ; but states (3Ia)it. 178.) that it grows in the 

 Island of Joiianna, which would seem to show that it is an African as well as 

 an Asiatic production. Plukenet, it must be observed, takes no notice what- 

 ever of this plant in the Almagentum ; much less does he compare it to the 

 Tcreb'intlius, as the elder Burman alleges in his note on Rumphius. 



Tliis latter author is the first after Rheede who gives an account of this 

 tree, wliich he calls Jatus, from its Malay name Jati, signifying, as Rumphius 

 observes, durable, and by no means, as Commeline imagined, the name of the 

 Oak, a tree totally unknown to the natives. 



After Rumphius, this valuable tree continued unnoticed by botanists, until 

 tlie younger Linnaeus published the Supplementum, in which he called it Tec- 

 tona grantUs, by a very forced and irregular derivation from ruruv, faber, a 

 word never, I believe, applied to the material on which the workman operates. 

 In the modern rage, however, for Greek, the name has been generally re- 

 ceived {TFHld. Sp. PI. i. 1088.; Hort. Beng. 17.; Hort. Kew. ii. 12.), although 

 Jussieu {Gen. Plant. 121.), M. Lamarck (///. Gen. t. 136.), and M. Poiret 

 {^Enc. MdtJi. vii. 592.), most justly prefer the Malabar name Theka. 



In the kingdom of Ava this valuable tree is called Kiim ; but there is still 

 more common another species of the same genus called Ta-la-hat, which, 

 although very ornamental, is nearly useless. Its leaves, howevei", serve cabinet- 

 makers for polishing their work. I shall here give a description of this tree, 

 of which I sent to England specimens and a drawing, that were given to 

 Sir Joseph Banks ; but a copy of the drawing is in the library at the India 

 House. I shall here premise, that, although Jussieu places the Theka among the 

 Vitices, I am with all submission inclined to think it more nearly allied to the 

 Borraginece, on account of the number of stamina and regularity of its corolla. 



Theka ternifolia. 



Habitat in Avse coUibus sterilissimis. 



Arbor inter minores. Rami hexagoni, obtusanguli ; juniores trisulci, lanati. 

 Folia terna, elliptica, integerrima, acuta, costata, venis reticulata ; supra 

 papillosa, hispida, ad nervos pilosa; subtus tomento albo, molli pubes- 

 centia. Petiolus brevissimus, semiteres, tomentosus, non stipulaceus. 

 Inter tomentum pili nonnulli stellati. 



