su 



Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon, 





never have, and never can further science, since it is so easy 

 to set down a name, whether it be correct or not, and, that 

 such is the case too often in Mr. Moon's, I have determined 

 from the examination of such of his specimens as exist in 

 the Garden Herbarium with his names attached to them. 

 When there are no distinctive characters published along 

 with the name, so that others may be able to ascertain what 

 plant was meant, the utility of the work is completely nulli- 

 fied ; and hence it is that now when the natural sciences are 

 cultivated with an accuracy hitherto unknown, it is seldom 

 that a catalogue makes its appearance, unless, indeed, those 

 which refer simply to the contents of a museum or a garden, 

 for facility of reference. In Mr. Moon's Catalogue there are 

 the names of a good many Ceylon plants which he correctly 

 determined to be new, but as there were no characters 

 attached to them whereby other Botanists could ascertain 

 what they were, the consequence has been, that most of them 

 have since been published under other names, by other 

 Botanists, such, for example, as by Wight and Arnott in 

 their works on the Botany of the Peninsula of India. Mr. 

 Moon has also done much more than any of the others to- 

 wards the formation of a Ceylon Herbarium, that portion of 

 it formed by him which still remains at the Gardens, con- 

 taining specimens from nearly all parts of the island. It 

 shall be my endeavour to do justice to his labours in the 

 work on which I am now engaged. 



ANSTRUTHERIA. Genus Novum. 

 (Ord. Nat. El^ocarpe^:.) 

 Char. Gen. — Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx bibracteo- 

 latus, 4-partitus, foliolis ovatis subsequalibus, cestivatione 

 valvatis, persistentibus. Corolla petala 4, hypogyna, cesti- 

 vatione imbricata, cuneata, subregulariter laciniata; stami- 

 na circita 30, hypogyna ; Jilamenta filiformia, glabra ; an- 

 therae erectae, cordato-oblongae, obtusae, biloculares, longitu- 

 dinalita-dehiscentes. Ovarium sessile, triloculare. Ovula in 





