DISTRIBUTION. 1 
samaroid iruits the true name was Amerimnon. However inconvenient their action may 
be, there is therefore no doubt that Kuntze and Hiern are logically justified in proposing 
to suppress the name Dalbergia and replace it by the name Amerimnon. Indeed, from 
а strictly logical standpoint, the name Dalbergia was at all times indefensible if the 
separation of the species with nummular and with samaroid fruits be justified, because 
the genus Dalbergia was expressly devised to include species with fruits of both types, 
From the moment, however, when Bentham showed that the group LEcastaphyllum ів 
not a natural genus, and particularly from the moment that Taubert carried Bentham’s 
conclusion into actual practice, the names Amerimnon and Ecastayhyllum, being partial, 
were rendered alike incorrect and inappropriate, and the name Dalbergia became the 
only name that can with any propriety be applied to the whole genus,* 
§ 4. Distribution of the Asiatic species of Dalbergia, 
The genus Dalbergia is widely distributed throughout South-Eastern Asia, and 
extends from Beluchistan, the Concan and Ceylon to Кіапоѕи in China, the Philip- 
pines and New Guinea. Two species extend eastward from the Philippines and north 
of New Guinea to the Caroline Archipelago; two species cross from New Guinea into 
North Australia. One of these latter species extends eastward to New Caledonia, Fiji 
and Vavau. This Melanesian species is D. torta, a member of the section Endespermum, 
with pods so modified as to adapt them for dispersal by ocean currents; its wide 
distribution shows that it is a typical member of the Indo-Malayan Strand-flora, Тһе 
presence of D. torta in islands so remote as Fiji and Vavau is thus теғаПу accounted 
for, and Melanesia, so far as Dalbergia is concerned, possesses only a species that occurs 
in every other natural area in South-Eastern Asia that has a sea-coast. The two species 
that occur in the Carolines are again D. torta and with it a species whose pods are 
similarly, though less obviously, adapted for dispersal by water. This is D. ferruginea, 
which occurs everywhere throughout Papuasia and Eastern Malaya, but dues not appear 
to cross the Wallace line to the west. Тһе two that occur in Australia are once 
more D. torta and another species, D. densa, characteristic of New Guinea, the Moluccas 
and the Key and Aru Archipelagos; in Australia it is confined to the coast of Queens- 
land and certain islands in Torres Strait. So far as Dalbergia is concerned, then, both 
Micronesia and Australia are mere prolongations of Eastern Malaya and Papuasia, | 
Ceylon, the south-western extreme of our area, is in like case. Here there are only 
three species, one of these being again the littoral D. torta ; the others are D, rostrata, 
a species that extends from Celebes to South India, and D. lanceolaria, a species that 
extends throughout the Indian Peninsula as far as the North-Western Himalaya. Ceylon 
is thus а meeting ground of Malayan and Indian influences, and, so far as Dalbergia 
is concerned, has po distinguishing features. Since, however, all three Ceylon species 
occur in Malabaria, while only two occur in Malaya, we conclude that, so far as 
Dalbergia is concerned, Ceylon is a mere annex of Malabaria. 
* An exactly converse instance has been already fully explained by the writer (Journ. = d ны mes 
404). The genus Mucwna, as founded by Adanson in 1763 and as accepted by a subsequen hike сонан id 
is a complex of two extremely distinct and natural genera founded by P. Browne, dee ically bound 
Zoopthalmum. So long as we are content to accept Adanson’s erroneous complex акт ida баян сөй 
to accept and use Adanson's name Mucuna; so soon ав it is realised that in sy чн Miei uon 
ander this name, Browne's two names, Stizolobium and Zoopthalmum, will come into use an dans 
be abandoned.: 
Ann. Roy. Dor. Garp. CALCUTTA, Vor. X. 
