CINNAMOMUMS OF AUSTRALIA. 249 



parenchymatous cells, dark coloured, vide remarks under C. 

 Laubaiii. Masses of stone cells occur frequently in the outer bark,, 

 where only a few bands of periderm were seen on the outer cortex. 



C. virens. — This was found to be the most compact bark of the 

 four ; the bgist fibres, whilst present, are not the most conspicuous 

 object in a cross section, but the walls of the parenchymatous cells 

 bounding the sieve tubes are evidently due to a larger percentage 

 of the manganese compound in the walls. The medullary rays. 

 much sooner increase in cell width than in the other species. 



Conclusions. 



From the above additional botanical data, and by introducing 

 the cognate science of chemistry, it would appear now that the 

 validity of the Australian species is established, and they are 

 distinct from the Indian trees. Also that the theory set up by 

 myself and colleague in a research on the Eucalypts, that as in the 

 case of those trees the leaf venation indicates the chemical con- 

 stituents of the leaf, so it isfoundnowtoholdgoodforCinnamomums 

 in the species examined. And if chemical investigations of the leaf, 

 bark and timber products could be carried out in the respective 

 countries in which the species occur and the results tabulated, much 

 assistance would be given to clear up the doubts at present sur- 

 rounding their specific rank, and such data would no doubt have 

 considerably assisted Hooker when working on herbarium material 

 only, for he wrote in his " Flora of India," vol. v., under C. 

 zeylanicum : — 



C. zeylanicvim, Breyn in Ephem. Nat. Cur. dec. i. ann. 4, 139» 

 Syn. : — C. aromaticum, Grah. Cat. Bomb. PI. 173 ; ?C. iners, 



Wight Ic. t. 122 bis. ; Laurus cinnamomum, Roxb. Fl. 



Ind. ii. 295 ; L. nitida. Wall. Cat. 2582 ?B. ; L. cassia, 



Burm. Fl. Ind, 91. 



Hab. : — ^Tenasserim, Burma and the Malay Peninsula ; 

 Deccan Peninsula and Ceylon, indigenous or cultivated. 



Distrib. : — Cultivated in the Malay Islands and elsewhere in 

 the tropics, 



" I am unable to unravel the synonymy of the varieties attributed to this 

 species by Nees and others. Thwaites suspects that it passes into C. nitidum 

 and iners. This is possible if the fruiting calyces prove the same, though 

 not into C. obtusifolium, which, besides its characters of leaf and panicle, 

 appears to have a different range. I have also kept C. mitltifloyum and 

 ovalifoliuyn (which Thwaites unites with zeylanicum) as distinct, though with 

 hesitation. Kurz (For. Fl.) describes the fruiting perianth of zeylanicum as 

 truncately 5-cleft, but I find the lobes in fruit all perfect and rounded in 

 what T take to be typical specimens. Meissner's var. fceniculaceum (Ceylon, 

 Thwaites 2284) seems to have no recognisable character, and Thwaites does 

 not distinguish it. Vars. inodorum and Cassia of Nees I suppose to be the 

 same thing, and are the faintly aromatic wild forms, passing probably into 

 nitidum, the fruiting perianth of which is unknown. Beddome's figure of 

 zeylanicum is of a very coarse-leaved var. from the Nilghiris, which he calls 

 var. Wightii ; his fig. 11 on the same plate representing what he supposes 

 to be fruit of iners is perhaps referable to C. macrocarpiim." 



