CLUSIACE^: OR GUTTIFER^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 74. 



HEBRADENDRON. 



Flowers unisexual. $. Sepals 4, membranous, perma- 

 nent. Petals 4. Stamens monadelphous, with a quadrangular 

 column, anthers terminal, with an umbilicated circumscissile 

 operculum. $ . unknown. Berry many-(4) celled ; cells 

 1 -seeded; surrounded by a few abortive distinct stamens and 

 crowned by a sessile lobed muricated stigma. Cotyledons thick, 

 consolidated. Radicle central, filiform. Graham. 



225. H. Cambogioides Graham in Comp. to Bot. mag. 

 ii. 199. t. 27. Cambogia gutta Linn. zeyl. 87. Mangostana Mo- 

 rella Gcertn. ii. 106. t. 105. Garcinia Morella Desr. in Lam. 

 encycl. iii. 701. DC.prodr. i. 561. Ceylon. (" Gokatu" or 

 " Kana Goraka" Cing.) 



A tree of moderate size. Leaves opposite, petiolate, obovato-ellip- 

 tical, abruptly subacuminate, coriaceous, smooth, shining, dark-green 

 above, paler below, veins in the recent state inconspicuous, especially 

 above ; in the dried state, distinct on both sides. Flowers unisexual, 

 monoecious (or dioecious ? ). Male small (8 to 9 lines across), clustered 

 in the axils of the petioles, on short single-flowered peduncles. Se- 

 pals 4, subequal, imbricated, concave, membranous, veined, the outer 

 subentire, and somewhat coriaceous in the bud, the inner sparingly 

 denticulato-ciliate, yellow on the inside, yellowish-white on the outside. 

 Petals 4, spathulato-elliptical, coriaceous, crenulate, longer than the 

 calyx, yellowish-white, red on the inside near the base, deciduous. 

 Stamens monadelphous ; column 4-sided j anthers in a roundish 

 capitulum, terminal upon a short clavate free portion of the filament, 

 opening by the circumcision of a flat umbilicate lid ; pollen yellow, 

 granules elliptical. No trace of an ovary. Female flower unknown. 

 Berry about the size of a cherry, round, with a firm reddish-brown 

 external coat, and sweet pulp, 4-locular, surrounded at the base by the 

 persisting calyx and a few free abortive stamens, crowned with the 

 4-lobed tubercled sessile stigma ; loculament single-seeded. Seeds large 

 in relation to the berry, reniform-elliptical, compressed laterally ; integu- 

 ments yellowish-brown, easily separable into two layers ; cotyledons 

 thick, cohering into an uniform cellular mass ; radicle central, filiform, 

 slightly curved. Graham, 1. c. This plant has now been proved to 

 yield a kind of gamboge not distinguishable chemically or medicinally 

 from that of Siam. But as no gamboge is imported from Ceylon there 

 remains some doubt whether the Siamese and Cingalese plants are 

 identical. Dr. Christison inclines to the opinion that they are, and 

 that the notion of Murray is admissible who supposed that the tree 

 yielding gamboge was carried from Siam to Ceylon along with the 

 113 i 



