128 



NOTES ON SOME OF THE PLANTS INTRODUCED 



INTO THE VICTORIA GARDENS, BOMBAY, 



DURING THE PAST 8 YEARS. 



By Cavasji D. Mahaluxmivala. 



Part I. 



{Read hefore the Bombay Natural History Society on 9th July 1901.) 



1. ScHiNUS molle/' L. (Anacardtace^), commonly known as the Austra- 

 lian Pepper tree or Peruvian Mastic tree. It is a South American tree, 

 remarkable for its gracefully drooping branches of numerous pinnate 

 leaves somewhat of a glaucous hue, and for its beautiful rose-coloured fruits 

 of the size of peas resembling the ripe berries of pepper from which it has 

 probably derived its common name of pepper tree. The flowers are minute, 

 pinkish white, appearing in March and April, the fruits forming a month later. 

 A few seedlings were obtained in exchange in 1894 from Professor H, Page, 

 of the College of Science, Poona, bat they all died soon after receipt. Another 

 young plant, however, was afterwards obtained in 1897 from Bangalore 

 It has been propagated by layering, A few seeds collected from one of the 

 plants in May 1900 were sown, but did not germinate. It is suitable for 

 planting as a single specimen on lawns and in mixed shrubberies. It does not 

 seem to bear much moisture at the roots, as some of the plants planted in the 

 Victoria Gardens, the subsoil of which generally contains stagnant-water, 

 died in the rains. It is said to grow to a height of 20 feet. 



The leaves of this plant contain a fragrant resinous fluid which when the 

 leaflet is cit into pieces exudes with snch force that the cut pieces thrown 

 on the surface of water move about in jerks in consequence of the recoil, 

 having an appearance of spontaneous motion. 



2. Fatsia (Aralia) PAPYRiFEBA,t B. and E. (Araliace^), Rice-paper 

 tree. It is a Chinese shrub, about 8 feet high, with very large seven-lobed 

 wracef ully hanging leaves which are covered on the back with a cream-coloured 

 down. The plant was purchased from the Botanical Garden attached to the 

 College of Science, Poona, in 1894. It seems to thrive only in partial shade 

 and in dry open soil, stagnant water at the roots beinp^ injurious to it. 

 Several plants planted in the ground in the Victoria Gardens died owing to 

 their being exposed to the sun and to the water-logged condition of the 

 subsoil. It is not only an ornamental foliage plant, but is interesting as the 

 source of the rice-paper of the Chinese, which is prepared from its pith. 

 It is propagated from the ofEshoots thrown up from the ground around it. 



* The name is derived from ScAJnos, the old Greek name for the Mastic tree (Pistaoia 

 lentiscus), and from rmdli, the Peruvian name for this plant, 



f The name Fatsia is derived from the Japanese name of one of the species (F. Japonica) 

 and from papyrus, a rush-like plant (Cyperus papyrus) from the stem of which tha 

 Egyptians made a kind of paper, and/ero, to bear, 



