OF BRITISH INDIA 



277 



♦ 



/ 



I 



The genus Myrntica was founded by Linnaeus in the second edition of hii 



Genera Phntarum, published in 1742, the single species known to him being tht 

 Nutmeg of commerce. The genus was omitted in the third edition: but the 



Nutmeg 



reappeared in the younger Linnaeus's supplement as a newly -described «peci<* 

 Gaertner, in his Treatise De Fructibus et Semiuibus Phntarum (published in 178b), 

 described and figured, from material which he probably obtained from Ceylon, the 



common Nutmeg and three species besides, viz., M. dactyloidcs, -1/. Irya, and M. Irya- 

 ghedhi. Gaertner's M. Irya, readily identified by its almost perfectly globular seeds, 

 stands as a species to the present day. His M. Iryaghedhi I believe to be M. Hon- 

 feldn,hh; and his M. dactyloides (and in this I am at one with Dr. Tritmn, i.k.v. 

 the present Director of the Peradeniya Botanic Garden) to be M. kurifolia, II. f. 

 & Th. The next writer who added much to our knowledge of the Asiatic species 

 was Blume, who, in his Bijdragen (published in 1825), gave an account of eeven 

 species, in addition to the common Nutmeg. In the first volume of his Mumphia 

 (published in 1835), the same author added five more novelties, and also re-described four 

 previously known species. In their Flora Indica (published in 1 ">5), Drs. J. 1). Hooker 

 and T. Thomson made the next great addition to our knowledge of Asiatic Nutmegs. In 

 that admirable fragment, twenty -three species of Myrisiwa were described, of which 

 a very large proportion were quite new. A little later (18">G-57) there appeared 



his Prodromus) M. Alph. DeCandolle's excellent monograph of the whole ordi. 

 Of the eighty -one species therein described, one is African ; twenty-eight (viz., the 

 entire sections Virola, Sychoneura, Otoba, Compsoneura and Jry ant hero) are South American; 

 one is Australian ; five are Polynesian ; one is doubtful, and forty-five are Asiatic. 

 Miquel contributed largely to the literature of the genus. In 1859 appeared the first 

 volume of his Flora of Netherlands India, in which he describes fifty-eight speciea (of 

 hich however, three are non-Asiatic), and of these nine are new. In his Suppl 



for Sumatra (1860), the same author contributed five additional species from th 



island. And in his Annals of the Leiden Herbarium (Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat, vol. I 



205 1863-64; and vol. II, 46, 1865-66) he adds eleven new species from Malay*,, 

 countries. These bring the number of Asiatic species recognized by Miquel up to 



sixty-nine-a number which, from Miquel's inveterate habit of founding new speciea on 

 imperfect materials, is doubtless capable of considerable reduction In vol. 1 1 1 of 

 their Genera Plantarum (1880), the late Mr. Bentham and Sir Joseph Hooker estimate 

 the total number of species at about eighty, of which about fifty are Asiatic Sir 

 Joseph Hooker's Flora of British India contains the most recent account of the Indian 

 species, and in that work thirty-two species (30 in the text and 2 in the appendix) 



a e described ; while several more are alluded to but (for want of full material) are 

 Z named The activity which has characterised the work of botaiucal collecting 

 not named, ine y Calcutta Botanic Garden during the past few 



in me Bjmcx*? v* * 



3, brought to the Calcutta B 

 e new. And the desirabili 

 vho are not botanical expe 



,.j *i^. ;A* a <vF rmhlishh 



sug°* 



within the sphere of influence of the Calcutta — e «»™™ ,„„.„ —.I-" ~- 



y ars brought to the Calcutta Herbarium specimens of several spec.es which I beheved 

 yeais, uiougm. . . , . w _ . j^-k;™ i^prp. inmed to the difficultv which 



And the desirability of describing these, joined to the difficulty which 

 * not botanical experts have in distinguishing any species of Ifr^ 



ested the idea of publishing figures, accompanied by descriptions, of all the 

 & ested tne iaea 1 ^ ^ ^ d ^ It ^ ftt gir j h Hooker's 



to be new 

 all who are 



British Indian species 



gestion 



th 



« Tt T undertook the present memoir, and during its elaboration I have had 



Tl of his tT^Z invaluable advice and encouragement. To prevent 



u^InC I -y explain that, by the phrase BnUsh ft* I understand 



Ann. Boy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta Vol. Ill 



