26 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



us, it is planted about the houses both for shade and sweetness, and 

 it is mentioned by Miss Gordon-Gumming as one of the splendid 

 trees of the Fiji island?, growing there also down to the water's 

 edge. 



4. MESUA. 



M. fewea. Leaves oblong, lanceolate, shining above, whitish 

 beneath, flowers solitary or twin, large, silvery white with 

 bright yellow anthers ; fruit oval pointed, with the calyx 

 attached. Nag champa ; Sans. Nag Jcesara. 



Found wild in the Konkan, and cultivated elsewhere, but not so 

 commonly as its beauty and fragrance deserve. There is no ex- 

 aggeration in Sir W. Jones's description : " This tree is one of the 

 most beautiful on earth, and the delicious odour of its blossoms 

 justly gives them a place in the quiver of Cama-deva." Tennant, 

 who says it is planted in Ceylon near every Buddhist temple, describes 

 the flowers as resembling white roses, and forming "a singular 

 contrast with the buds and shoots of the tree, which are of the 

 deepest crimson." It is described as growing 60 or 70 feet high in 

 the Burrampooter valley, " a glossy green mass of foliage, beset 

 with snowy, fragrant gold-centred flowers of the camellia character : 

 its timber unmatched for weight and hardness by any other in all 

 the immense wilderness of Ind." And no flower can better fit 

 Wordsworth's lines 



" A silver shield with boss of gold, 

 That spreads itself some fairy bold 

 In fight to cover " 



Here comes order Ternstrsemiaceae. It is very doubtful 

 whether there is any species of it wild in W. India, but it is 

 mentioned here as containing the genus Thea, from the leaves 

 of various species of which all the tea is produced. H. makes 

 Thea only a section of the genus Camellia, so well known for 

 the beauty of the flowers, and calls C. theifera, which is wild 

 in Assam, " possibly the wild stock of the tea plant." 



ORDER 19. DIPTEROCARPEJE. 



Leaves alternate and simple, flowers regular, anthers 2-celled 

 with connective. 



I can make out no other constant characteristics of this small 

 order, nor are the number of petals and sepals given of the only 

 species belonging to W. India. 



ANCISTROCLADUS. Smooth climbing shrubs with short hooked 

 tendril-like branches, leaves entire in tufts, calyx at first small, 

 but increasing and becoming wings to the fruit, styles 3. 



*A. heyneanus. A handsome climber with sessile oblong dark 



