124 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentarij 



it with any other. The elder Burman by a very rude chissifica- 

 tion calls the 'Neli PouU, Mains indica fructu parvo, rotundo, 

 acido, striato ; and notices that the Ceylonese call it M7//, the 

 same name that is given to the F/n/llani/ius Emblica, a resem- 

 blance to which has been already mentioned. 



Linnœus, in the Flora Zeylanica, 179, returned to the error of 

 Rheede and Ray in classing it with the Bilimbi, and called it 

 yiverrhoa ramis imdis fructificnntibus, poiuis subrotundis : and 

 when he gave specific names, the Ncli Pouliwas axWed Averrhoa 

 acida (Biir?}i. Fl. Ind. 106.), although it is less acid than either 

 of the other plants with which it was then classed. In the 

 ]\Ia7itissa, 124, Linnaeus described a plant called Cicca disficha, 

 which, he says, has a capsular fruit ; and which therefore may 

 be the plant that Plukenet compared to the Neli Pouli,- — that is, 

 a Bradleja ; but his son, notwithstanding this great difference, 

 alleged {Siippl. 4l6.) that the Cicca disticha and Averrhoa acida 

 are the same : and such is now the general opinion among 

 botanists {Willd. Sp. Fl. iv. 332. llort. Kew. v. 258. Lamarck 

 III. Gen. t. 757. f. 1.), although M. Lamarck {Enc. Meth. ii. 1.) 

 points out the ditliculty which I have mentioned. ^^ hether or 

 not deterred by this, or whether attracted by the resemblance to 

 the Fhyllanthus Emblica, Dr. Roxburgh {Hort. Beng. 69-) quotes 

 the Neli Foiili for his Fhyllanthus longifoliiis : but I here suspect 

 some mistake ; for he says that its Bengalese name is Lodh, 

 which is a plant used in dyeing, and never, so far as I know, 

 applied to the Cheramela : besides, he has also a Fhyllanthus 

 Cheramela {Ilort. Beng. 104.), to which, I suspect, the quotation 

 from the IJortus Molabaricus should have belonged. 



In the Rungpur district I have found a plant with leaves very 

 like the Neli Fuuli, which I suspect belongs to the real genus 

 Cicca, as described by the elder Linnaeus, and to Avhich the 

 Cicca congest a of Lamarck probably should be referred, but 



which 



