on the Hortus Malabaricus, Part III. 109 



plant under the name of Diospyros discolor. This is the Cava- 

 nillea Mabolo of Lamarck (///. Gen. t. 4Ô4.), and the Cavanillea 

 P/ii/ippen.si.s of jNI. Poiret {Enc. Mei/i. Sup. ii. 135; iii. 566.). 

 The latter seems to be of this opinion : yet, although the leaves 

 vary much in form, I have some doubt whether the Mabolo is 

 the same species with the Panitsj/ka ; because the former has 

 only four or six seeds, and is hairy ; while the latter has eight 

 or ten, and is quite smooth. Concerning the genus there can 

 be no doubt, lîrown (Nov. IJoll. i. 525.) and Dr. Roxburgh 

 tinally abandoned Embri/opteris altogether, and called this plant 

 Diospi/ros glntinifcra [Hort. Beng. 40.); while Persoon, con- 

 verting the generic into a specific name, calls it Di/ospi/ros Em- 

 bri/opteris {Enc. Meth. Sup. iii. 566.), which savours too much 

 of botanical Greek, and might lead one to suppose that it was a 

 Fern. 



I have already mentioned that the Mabolo can scarcely be of 

 the same species with the Panitsjika, on account of its roughness 

 and the number of seeds in its fruit. In the woods south of 

 the Ganges I found a tree, which in the catalogue of specimens 

 presented to the library at the India House (No. "2389) I have 

 called Diospi/ros exculpta, on account of its leaves being as it 

 were carved on the upper side. This, both in number of seeds 

 and pubescence resembles the Mabolo, and may be the same, 

 although its leaves are much blunter than represented in INI. La- 

 marck's figure. This, however, is uncertain : and it must be 

 observed that I saw only the male flowers, while the description 

 by M. Desrousseaux {Enc. Meth. iii. 664.) refers to the herma- 

 phrodite, which will account for some differences. Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, however, received a Mabolo from the Philippines, which 

 he considered different from the Diospj/ros tomentosa of Bengal ; 

 and this perhaps is the tree I am going to describe, although the 



natives 



