156 Dr. Arnott's Notice of the Species 0/ Salvadora. 



the Persian Gulf ; but along with this, another species is found on the 

 banks of the Jumna, and from Delhi to Saharumpore. This is S. indica, 

 nob. Jal of the Hindoos, irak-hindu of Persian authors, who also give this 

 tree the name of miswak, or tooth-brush tree ; the leaves are called ra- 

 sicna, resemble those of the lanceolate Senna, and are like them of a 

 purgative nature; the fruit is called j^eel and pinjoo. I know not if it be 

 the same as that brought from Hansi, and sold in the Delhi bazaar as an 

 edible fruit, under the name of j^eeloo. S. persica is called khurjal in 

 northern India, arak and irak in works on materia medica. The bark of 

 the root is acrid, and raises blisters (Roxb.) ; a decoction of the bark of 

 the stem is considered tonic, and the red berries are said to be edible." 



From this passage we infer that Dr. Eoyle considers the S. 2^erslca of 

 the Persian Gulf to be the same as the plant of Roxburgh, a shrub which 

 the latter found in the Circars, (and is not uncommon in the Peninsula and 

 many other parts of India,) and is identical with the plants of Lamarck and 

 Vahl, (at least the figures of both of these authors coincide with Rox- 

 burgh's;) but that there is a second species, a tree, growing along with 

 the former on the banks of the Jumna, and about Delhi. Royle's work 

 was published in 1839 ; unfortunately he gives no description of the new 

 species more than that now quoted. 



M. Jacquemont, a French naturalist, had travelled from Calcutta to 

 the Punjaub between the years 1828 and 1832, and the materials he 

 collected were jiublished previous to 1844. Such is the date on the title 

 page of the 4th volume, but this portion of the work was commenced in 

 1835; so that it is more than probable, as it appeared in parts, that the 

 one containing Salvadora was published as early as 1839, or even pre- 

 viously. In this 4th volume, which is devoted to natural history, the 

 genus Salvadora is introduced, the description and observations being 

 made by Decaisne, one of the first French botanists of the present day. 

 He there considers that only three species were known, and thus 

 characterizes them: — 1. S. persica; leaves ovate-lanceolate, racemes ter- 

 minal lax, calyx small, segmeiUs of the corolla refexed. 2. S. oleoides; 

 leaves linear-oblong obtuse or mucronulate, racemes short densely- 

 flowered, calyx subcamjxtmdale, its segments rounded, segments of the 

 corolla roundish erect scarcely longer tlian the calyx, stamens included. 

 3. S. madurensis; leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, racemes terminal or 

 axillary, calyx tubular, corolla a little longer tlian the calyx erect, stamens 

 protruded. 



The S-iiersica, which he considers common to India and Persia, is thus 

 essentially characterised from the two others, by the lobes of the corolla 

 considerably longer than the calyx, and reflexed; in the other two the 

 corolla is scarcely longer than the calyx, and erect ; and these two' again 

 difiFer from each other by the calyx short (or campanulate), and the 

 stamens included in S. oleoides, and the calyx tubular and stamens pro- 

 truded in S. madurensis. The last of these, which is from Madura, an 

 island off the north-east coast of Java, (not from northern India, as erro- 



