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Pereira (' Pharmaceutical Journal,' vol, x. p. 449) to Calysaccion longi- 

 folium, Wight, and by Dr. W. G. Walpers ('Botanische Zeitung,' vol. 

 ix. p. 367) to E. Chinense, Wlprs. This diflference of opinion has 

 arisen from a discrepancy in the description of Calysaccion in the 

 • Illustrations of Indian Botany.' Dr. R. Wight there describes the 

 peduncles as short, the stamens as submonadelphous, and the connec- 

 tivura as truncated. Dr. Walpers found that those terms could not 

 be applied to the buds which he examined, that the peduncles were 

 long in proportion to the flowers, the stamens entirely free, and the 

 connectivum acute. Hence he concluded that the buds must belong 

 to another species, which, thinking China to be its native country, he 

 called Calysaccion Chinense. 



Having examined a number of buds, and also some specimens in 

 Sir William Hooker's herbarium, I became convinced that the diffe- 

 rences were not such as would justify the establishing of a new spe- 

 cies, the stamens being in fact sometimes quite free, sometimes sub- 

 monadelphous, and the connectivum truncated and acute in one and 

 the same flower. One point of difference, however, still remains be- 

 tween Wight's description and the buds. " No one," says Dr. Wal- 

 pers, " would call a peduncle which is more than half an inch long 

 short in proportion to the flowers." But this discrepancy, apart from 

 the fact that short and long, broad and narrow, are merely relative 

 terms, must be regarded as a mistake, which even the most pains- 

 taking naturalists are apt to make. The specimens in Sir William 

 Hooker's herbarium leave no doubt that the peduncles are propor- 

 tionately long ; and the buds may therefore, without hesitation, be 

 considered as the produce of Calysaccion longifolium, Wight (C. 

 Chinense, Wlprs). 



The buds are about the size of a pea, and of an orange-brown or 

 cinnamon colour. They emit a fragrance not unlike that of violets or 

 green tea ; and Dr. Pereira has suggested that on account of this 

 odour they might be valuable as a perfume. Their chief use, how- 

 ever, and that for which they are employed in the East Indies, is 

 dyeing silk. What colour they produce is not known, but it is pro- 

 bably yellow. My esteemed friend A. Hanbury, Esq., says, in a let- 

 ter to me : — " A decoction of the Calysaccion buds possesses, I find, 

 but very little colour, as the enclosed slip of blotting-paper, which 

 has been dipped into it, will show. If, however, a little subcarbonate 

 of potash be added to this simple decoction, a tolerable deep orange- 

 brown is produced. The piece of calico sent, having been steeped in 

 a weak solution of alum, was boiled in this alkaline decoction; but the 



