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Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 



, 



I have named this very distinct genus in honour of Philip Anstru- 

 ther, Esq., late Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, a gentleman who during 

 a long residence in the Island was the warm patron of all that relates 

 to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Botany. It is, therefore, with plea- 

 sure that I connect his name with one of the many undescribed vege- 

 table productions indigenous to the country. 



Obs. I. — It is evidently to this plant that Dr. Arnott refers 

 at page 23 of the third volume of ' the Annals of Natural 

 History,' in the following words : — " Allied to Eloeocarpus, 

 I possess a new genus, also from Ceylon, of which the petals 

 are exactly as in Elceocarpus, the filaments long as in 

 Grewia or rather Tilia, the anthers short and considerably 

 different from those of either ; the leaves, with nearly the 

 structure of some species of Capparis, are opposite and 

 quite entire ; the calyx has a valvular cestivation, and when 

 in bud is glabrose and enclosed within two rounded concave 

 bracteolae ; it may be Elceocarpus integrifolius of Moon's 

 ' Catalogue of Ceylon plants.' I have seen neither fruit 

 nor seed." 



Ample opportunity has occurred to me, since my arrival 

 in Ceylon, for the investigation of the structure of this plant 

 in all its stages. It grows in great plenty about Point de 

 Galle, where I have collected fine fructified specimens, 

 my flowering ones being from a tree which flowered in the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradenia in October 1844. It 

 is a remarkable circumstance, that the flower buds are pro- 

 duced, and attain nearly their full size, about six months 

 before they actually open. 



At first I was inclined to refer this genus to Chlcenacece, 

 principally from the little involucrum which is formed of two 

 approximated bracts immediately under each flower, and 

 from the structure of the fruit ; but from a more attentive 

 consideration of its entire structure, I now agree with Dr. 

 Arnott, in considering it more nearly related to Elceocarpus. 

 Yet it does not associate well with the genuine genera of 



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