Litscca.] cxxvni. LAURINE.E. (J. I). Hooker.) 179 



2567, 2568. Laurus Cassia, Linn, ex Wight in Hook. Jourw. Sot. ii. (1840) 

 336. L. involu^crata, Valil in Herb. Juss. ex Lamk. Diet. iii. 445 ; Boxb. 

 Cor. PL ii. 46, t. 187. L. zeylamca, &c., Herm. Mus. Zeyl. 26. 



BHOTAN and the KHASIA MTS., Griffith. SILF/ET, Wallich. CHITTAGONG, 

 Pegu and Tenasserim, ascending to 7000 ft., and Martaban, Kurz. MALACCA, Main- 

 gay ; on Mt. Ophir and in littoral woods at Tangong cbi, Griffith. PENAN G, Wallich. 

 DECCAN PENINSULA; on the Western Ghats from the Concan southwards, and from 

 Quilon on the coast, Wight, ascending to 7000 ft. .on the Nilghiris. COEOMANDEL, 

 on the coast hills, Roxburgh. CEYLON, ascending to 6000 ft. DISTBIB. Sumatra, 

 Java. 



A small tree, variable as to foliage. Leaves often caudate-acuminate, 7 by 3 in. 

 the largest specimens from Courtallam and Sumatra (L. latifolia, Blume), smooth 

 above or beautifully reticulated with minute impressions on one or both surfaces 

 wholly or in part ; petiole ^-2 in. long. Umbels 4-5 fid. in all the specimens I have 

 examined, and as figured by Roxburgh (6-12 fld., Brandis, by error I suspect). Fruit 

 globose and subglobose, -3- in. diam., or oblong and ^-f in. long ; pedicel much 

 thickened, J-f in. Tong. I am in doubt as to there being one or two species included 

 in the above : one has globose fruit, mammillate at the top, as figured by Roxburgh, 

 and in Wight's Icones, 1. 132, from Ceylon, and his L.oblonga, t. 1845, from Courtallam, 

 and which I have seen in specimens from Canara, the Nilghiris and Malacca ; the 

 other species with much larger oblong fruit, rounded at the top, as figured by Wight 

 also as L. zeylanica at t. 1844, for which he gives no precise locality (beyond that it 

 is a native of Ceylon, Martaban and the western slopes of the Nilghiris), and as figured 

 by Beddome, t. 294, and of which I have seen specimens from the Concan ? (Herb. 

 Dalzell). Brandis describes the fruit of zeylanica as globose but occasionally 

 ovoid, and they are oblong in Nees' description of zeylanica, furfuracea and oblonga, 

 and Meissner's of foliosa, var. coe-sia. Kurz describes the Barman foliosa as having 

 oblong fruit ^and Meissner his zeylanica var. venosa as "ovali-globosa." Unfor- 

 tunately I find no fruit amongst the many Ceylon specimens that I have examined. 

 With regard to the characters ascribed by authors to furfuracea, oblonga, scrobiculata, 

 foliosa and pulcherrima, 1 find nothing in these whereby to distinguish them from 

 zeylanica ; nor are Meissner's five varieties of the latter at all fixed. For the dis- 

 tinctive characters of the too-closely allied L. umbrosa, I must refer to the notes 

 under that species. 



64. Xi. umbrosa., Nees Syst. Laurin. 623 (Tetranthera) ; branchlets 

 slender pubescent, leaves 2-5 in. alternate elliptic or oblong-lanceolate 

 caudate-acuminate triple-nerved below and with usually 2-4 pair of strong 

 nerves above the middle glaucous or not beneath, fruit globose on a very 

 slightly enlarged perianth-tube with a slender pedicel. Meissn. in DC. 

 Prodr. xv. 1. 223. L. consimilis, Nees Syst. 628 (excl. syn. Laurus invo- 

 lucrata); Meissn. 1. c. 223 ; Gamble Man, Ind. Timb. 311. Tetradenia 

 umbrosa and T. consimilis, Nees in Wall. PL As. Bar. ii. 64 and- iii. 30 

 (excl. var. /3.). Tetranthera umbrosa, Wall. Cat. 2564, and pulcherrima ? 

 2567 B. T. pallens, Don Prodr. 66. 



TEMPEEATE and SUBTEOPICAL HIMALAYA ; Kashmir and Clutmba, alt. 3-5000 ft., 

 Clarice ; Simla and Kumaon, alt. 6-7000 ft.; Nepal, Wallich. Sikkirn, alt. 7000 ft., 

 KHASIA MTS., alt. 5-6000 ft. DISTEIB. Munnipore. 



Habit and characters of L. zeylanica, but usually more slender, with more caudate 

 leaves, and best distinguished by the longer more slender fruiting-pedicels with a 

 smaller dilated perianth-tube under the fruit. There are three forms which I have 

 endeavoured to characterize below, of which the larger leaved Khasia may be the 

 transition to zeylanica, with which Brandis unites both L. umbrosa and consimilis, 

 probably rightly. Gamble, however, keeps them distinct. L. consimilis was founded 

 by Nees on Wallich' s flowering specimen of pulcherrima? (No. 2567 B), which he iden- 

 tified doubtfully with Roxburgh's Coromandeliowrws invohicrata, assuming that they 

 were from the same mountains; and in so far as that Roxburgh figures many pairs of 

 nerves above the basal, he had some reason for his assumption; but in other respects, 



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