184 G-. King — Indian Species of Canarium. [No. 4, 



Two nearly mature females 10 inches long, and two young from 

 the Bay of Bengal, 128 fathoms. The differences between this species 

 and the preceding are too numerous to support the opinion that they 

 are only different sexes of the same species. 



At the same station a specimen of (9.) Dysomma bucephalus was 

 dredged. 



On some Indian Species of Canarium.— By Geokge King, M. B., LL. D., 

 F.R.S. CLE. Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. 



With Plates X, XI, XII, and XIII. 



[Read — December 6th] 



In Sir Joseph Hooker's Flora of British India eighteen species of 

 Canarium are described. Of these, twelve are Indo-Malayan, two have 

 hitherto been collected only in the Andaman Islands, and two are 

 confined to Ceylon. The remaining two, viz., C strictum, Roxb., and 

 C. bengalense, Roxb. are natives of British India proper, and were both 

 originally published by Roxburgh in his Flora Indica. C. strictum is a 

 native of Southern India, and was originally described from specimens 

 received by Roxburgh from the Forests of the Tinnivelli district in the 

 extreme South of the Peninsula. It has since been collected in the 

 Anamalli and Bababudin Hills, in the Concan, and in other parts of the 

 Forests of the Western Ghats. C. bengalense, on the other hand, is 

 known only from Sylhet and Assam. The distribution of the two 

 species is therefore very different. All the species of Canarium known 

 to me are large trees with tall clear stems, bearing branches, (and con- 

 sequently flower and fruit), only at their apices. Botanical specimens 

 are therefore not easily obtained, and the various species are poorly 

 represented in most collections, and are therefore but imperfectly under- 

 stood by Botanists. The species indigenous to British India proper do 

 not in these respects form any exception ; for, in spite of the existence 

 for the last five and twenty years of a large and well-organised Forest 

 Department, we do not appear to know more to-day about them than 

 we did when Roxburgh originally described two of them eighty years 

 ao*o. With the view of directing the attention of forest officers to their 

 study, I venture to submit to the Society descriptions of the two already 

 recognised Indian species, a description of what appears to me to be a 

 new species from Sikkim, and some notes on specimens which apjDear 

 to belong to two species hitherto unrecognised and undescribed. 



