132 Dr. FuANCis Hamilton's Commentary 



TsjEROU ]VIeer Allou sen Alou,;^.?!. tab. 56. 



Rheede describes two species called Meer Aloii; this, and tlie 

 Atte AleerAlou mentioned in page 75 : and the two plants are very 

 nearly allied, both belonging to the natural division of the genus 

 Ficus, which has pedunculated fruit ; a circumstance generally 

 connected with scabrous or very rigid leaves, having their sides 

 either unequal or lobed or indented, while the species with sessile 

 fruit have soft, entire, and equal-sided leaves. The resemblance 

 between the two Mec?- Alous is striking not only to the vulgar of 

 Malabar, but to the Brahmans, who give them both the generic 

 appellation of Paroi. The Tsjerou Mcer Alou is the prototype of 

 the genus Parai, having no specific name prefixed. It is quoted 

 with doubt inWilldenow {Sp. PI. iv. 1145 ) for the Ficua tciebrata ; 

 but as this has sessile fruit, we may safely reject the quotation, 

 this circumstance, as I have said, being of the most essential 

 importance in distinguishing the species of this genus. I at 

 one time thought that it might be the plant of Rumphius figured 

 in the 85th plate of the third volume, which in the explanation 

 of the plate is called Variiiga rubra ; and this led me to suppose 

 that it was the Supa or I aringa rubeiis: but I observe that this 

 is an error, and that Rumphius describes no plant called Î aringa 

 rubra, while the 86th plate represents the Supa^ u large tree. 

 But plate 85 therefore represents no doubt the Varinga repens, 

 a climber, which consequently cannot be the Tsjerou Meer Alou. 

 I think it probable that the same erroneous explanation of the 

 85th plate led M. Lamarck {Enc. Meth. ii. 497-) to quote it, 

 although with doubt, for his Ficus pijrifolia (not that of Burman, 

 Fl. Ind. 226.), which therefore may be very nearly allied to the 

 Tsjerou Meer Alou, although M. Poiret quotes this, in imitation 

 of Willdenow, for Ficus terebrata (Enc. Meth. Sup. ii. 645.). I 



shall 



