and certain Indian Terebinthaceœ. 357 



tain : viz. " Polygamous ; Dioicous : ? Cal. 3-, 4-, 5-toothed. 

 Co?-. 3-, 4-, 5-petalled. Sfam. 6, 8, 10. Sti/l. 0. Stigma 3-lobed. 

 Caps. 3-valved, 1-seeded. Seed arilled*." And it is further 

 remarked concerning that generic description, that " the cap- 

 sule is 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-seeded ; and that the genus difiers from 

 Amyris only in the sessile stigma and arilled seedt." 



Yet AVilldenow, whose remark it is, has annexed to Amyris 

 all the Ideas of Aublet, in every one of which the seeds are en- 

 veloped in proper arilliform pulp ; and the style is so obscure in 

 those, as in several other species referred to Amyris, (particularly 

 A. polygama, A. pentaphylla, A. acuminata, and A. nana, Roxb.), 

 that the stigma may well be deemed sessile in divers plants of 

 both genera. 



The rest of the characters are not less indeterminate. Amyris 

 polygama, as the name imports, has unisexual tlowers. This in- 

 deed has been transferred to another genus {Sclnnus dependens of 

 Ortega). But Amyris Kalaf of Forskal appears also to be poly- 

 gamous ; and so do A. acuminata and A. agallocha of Roxburgh. 

 While several Burseras exhibit no unisexual blossoms. Amyris 

 Zeylanica is described as hexandrous : and A. decandra, as the 

 specific name indicates, presents decandrous tiowers ; and so 

 does another which I shall describe, and which I take to belong 

 to the same family with the Amyrides, or at least with those of 

 Roxburgh. More than one of the plants which have been re- 

 ferred to this genus are variable, like Bursera gummifera, in the 

 number of stamina and their corresponding proportion of petals 

 and calycine divisions. 



The berry of A my ris varies as much in respect of the num- 

 ber of mature seeds contained in it, as the capsule of Bursera. 

 Nor is the distinction of the pericarp, implied by those names, 

 well founded in this instance. They are alike coriaceous and 



* IVilhl. Sp. PI. iv. 1119. t Ibid. 1121. 



pulpy, 



