HEBRADENDRON. 



HEDYPHANE. 



purgative juice in the rind of ita fruit. Dr. Graham thinks that 

 the Siam plant may be a iiearly allied species of the same genus as 

 the Ceylon plant. 



The Ceylon gamboge is usually considered inferior ; that which 

 forms ^an article of commerce no doubt is so ; and we have been 

 informed by one of the principal merchants of Ceylon that finding 

 the gamboge there very cheap, he had been induced to purchase and 

 send it to England, but had not been able to sell it from its inferior 

 quality. No doubt however some of very excellent quality is pro- 

 duced in Ceylon by the tree which has been called Hebradendron 

 camboyioidei, and Mrs. Colonel Walker describes it aa " brilliant and 

 excellent," and " as good for water-colour drawings aa any she ever 

 used." Dr. Graham ascribes its inferiority to want of care in pre- 

 paring the article for market ; though it is yet doubtful whether the 

 Ceylon gamboge of commerce is all yielded by this tree ; but Mrs. 

 Walker on one occasion, in passing through a forest of these trees, 

 saw all of them with the bark cut off in various places. Dr. Christi- 

 son has shown that there is all but an identity of composition with 

 that of Siam ; and its medicinal effects are precisely the same, as 

 proved,in Ceylon by Dr. Pitcairn, and by Drs. Graham and Christison 

 in Edinburgh. 



Thia plant, though new named, is far from being new. Dr. Graham 



lers it to be identical with the Carcajntli of Herman, the Cam- 

 bogia yutlu of Linnaeus, the Garcinin Mordla of late authors, and the 

 M,<l'trimitit camboyioidei of Moon's ' Catalogue of Ceylon Plants.' The 

 last name-might have been retained, as it was originally intended for 

 it, liad it not been discovered by Mr. Brown that the specimens in the 

 ' Banksian Herbarium ' collected by Kocnig, and from which Murray's 

 character of the genus and species was established, consist not of one t 

 but of two distinct plants, the flowers of Xanthochymiu malifoliHt 

 being stuck by sealing-wax upon a branch of what appears to be this 

 <Vy!' in plant. The genera Stalagmita and Xcmthochym m are there- 

 fore one genus, as was previously inferred by Cambessedes, who has 

 retained for it the former, aa the prior name. 



The genus Jlebradendron has dioecious flowers, the male having the 

 calyx membranaceous, 4-sepalled, persistent ; corolla 4-petalled ; sta- 

 mens tnonadelphous ; column 4-sided ; anthers terminal, opening by 

 the circumcision of a flat and umbilicate terminal lid. The inflores- 

 cence of the female tree is similar to that of the male, the flower white 



little larger, with a germen precisely in miniature of the fruit, 

 and surrounded (like it) with several (ten?) abortive stamens. The 

 berry is many (4-) celled ; cells 1 -seeded, surrounded at the base with 



i'ree abortive stamens, crowned by a lobed and muricated sessile 



i ; cotyledons fleshy, united; radicle central, filiform; trees 

 with entire leaves. 



I, a flowriinK branch uf Ilekradenilriin raiuki^ioida ; 1, a (loner M*II from 

 I, .1 flower c<n laterally ; 4, anther with its umbilicate lid. 



The species called //. camboyioidei forms a moderatc-^izod t.ue, with 

 the leaves obovate, elliptical, abruptly sub-acuminate; the male 

 flowers clustered in the axils of the petioles on short single flowered 

 peduncles; sepals yellow on the inside, yellowish-white externally; 

 petals yellowish-white, red on the inside near the base ; berry about 

 the size of a cherry, round, with a firm reddish-brown external coat 

 and sweet pulp ; ripe in July. It i.s called in Ceylon Kana (eatable) 

 Goraka. G. cambogia is called simply Goraka. The gamboge is used 

 by the natives both as a pigment and medicinally. Mrs. Walker 

 describes it as being collected by cutting pieces of the bark about the 

 size of the palm of the hand early in the morning. The gamboge 

 oozes out in a semi-liquid state, but hardens on exposure to the air, 

 and is scraped off by the collectors next morning. 



This tree is found in various parts of Ceylon, but not very abund- 

 antly near Colombo. In a tour through different parts of the island, 

 Mrs. Walker writes : " We found the Ceylon Gamboge-Tree sevaral 

 times in forests distant from the habitation of man, which proves the 

 tree to be indigenous." Colonel Walker writes to Dr. Wight, that 

 " it is found in great abundance along the western and eastern coast 

 in the neighbourhood of Battocola ; but it also grows inland, where 

 it could not have been planted by the Dutch. Its favourite abode 

 seems to be low sandy ground, as about Kanderaane, Negombo, and 

 towards Chilaw ; also, 100 miles inland, at so high an elevation as 

 2000 feet above the sea." Garcinia elliplica, a native of Silhet, and 

 U. j'i<:toria of the Wynaad district, are thought to be other species of 

 this genus. 



Besides the above species there is probably another belonging to the 

 same genus or to the same group of a larger genus, which appears to 

 yield a very good kind of gamboge. It is the Garcinia, pictoria of 

 Roxburgh, and 



II. pictorium of Lindley and other botanists. It is a tall tree, 

 about 60 feet high, of a conical shape, and very full of branches. The 

 bark is pretty thick, scabrous and ramous on the outside, of a dark 

 ferruginous colour, intermixed with many yellow specks, and through 

 its substance, particularly on the inside, considerable masses of gam- 

 boge are found. The young shoots are somewhat angular, smooth 

 polished, of a deep green colour. The leaves are opposite, short- 

 petioled, oblong, ventricose, rather acute, entire, smooth on both sides, 

 and of a firm texture, from 3 to 4 inches long, by 1 or 2 inches 

 broad. The calyx consists of two unequal pairs of concave obtuse 

 leaflets, permanent. Petals 4, oval, longer than the calyx. Anthers 

 from 10 to 15, oblong, 2-lobed, and seemingly fertile. Ovary superior, 

 round, 4-celled, with one ovule in each, attached to the axis a little 

 above its middle. The berry is the size of a large cherry, oval, 

 smooth, very slightly marked with four lobes, crowned with the 

 sessile 4-lobed verrucose permanent stigma. Roxburgh says he 

 received frequent samples of the gamboge of this tree from a corre- 

 spondent at Tellicherry, and uniformly found it, even in its crude 

 unrefined state, superior in colour while recent, but not so permanent 

 a that from China. The tree grows on the highest parts of Wyuaad 

 in India. 



(Lindley, Flora Medica ; Royle, Materia Medico..) 



H HUE N BE RGITE. flu-am.] 



HEDERA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Aralia- 

 cete. The calyx has an elevated or toothed edge. The petals 5 or 10, 

 not calyptrate and cohering; stamens 5 to 10; styles 5 to 10, con- 

 verging or consolidated ; the berry 5- or 10-celled. 



//. Helix, Ivy, is a common plant all over Europe, clinging to trees 

 and walls. It has a stem climbing with root-liko fibres ; leaves coria- 

 ceous, smooth, shining, 5-angled, or 5-lobed, the upper or old ones 

 ovate and acute ; umbels simple and downy ; leaves austere and 

 bitter ; berries bitter, aperient, and emetic. It is mentioned as a 

 sudorific, and was once reputed to prevent drunkenness and to dissi- 

 pate the effects of wine. The berries are black at maturity. The 

 flowers are yellowish, and appear late in the season, and, in conse- 

 quence, are much resorted to by bees and flies when little other food 

 is to be had. 



It is found commonly wild in England, and is dispersed through 

 many distant parts of the Old World, lying between the Canaries and 

 Europe on the west, and the northern parts of China on the east. In 

 the Canaries it acquires its largest size, being what is called in English 

 gardens the Irish or Giant Ivy, which grows so much faster than the 

 European form. In the north of India, and indeed occasionally in 

 Italy, the berries, instead of being black as with us, are bright yellow, 

 and it is supposed that this is more particularly the Ifcdcra of the 

 Roman poets. The leaves vary much in form, and there is a kind 

 which never runs or creeps upon other plants, but merely forms a 

 compact bush. 



//. umbellifera is a native of Amboyna. It has a shrubby unarmed 

 stem ; leaves on long stalks, lanceolate acuminate, distantly serrated ; 

 peduncles 16, trifid and umbellate; partial umbels capitate, roundish. 

 It yields a blackish or dull-brown resin with a very powerful aromatic 

 camphorated smell. It is called ' Sarura ' in Amboyna. There are 

 50 species of Ivy enumerated, all of which are of easy culture. 



HEDGE-HOG. [EniNACEUs.] 



HEDGE-MUSTARD. [SisyMBiuuM.] 



HEDGE-SPARROW. [SYLVIAD.S:.] 



HEDYPHANE. [LEAD.] 



