357 



Notes on Indian Botany. By Robt. Wight, M.D., F.L.S. 



Under this title I propose occasionally, as opportunities 

 offer, in the course of my botanical pursuits, to communicate 

 observations on such matters as may appear of sufficient 

 scientific interest to merit a place in the pages of the " Cal- 

 cutta Journal of Natural History/ 5 



The matters embraced in these " Notes" will, it is probable, 

 prove as miscellaneous as the title is indefinite, comprising 

 remarks on any subject relating to Botanical Science that for 

 the time happens to engage my attention ; discussions on 

 natural affinities ; on the composition and characters of na- 

 tural orders ; revisions of old, or descriptions of new genera ; 

 descriptions of new or imperfectly known species, &c. Such 

 being the mixed nature of the matters they are intended to 

 embrace, I have chosen for these contributions the above in- 

 definite title. 



The subject I have chosen to head the series, as being cal- 

 culated to give an idea of what is to follow, is one which 

 lately engaged my attention, and led in the course of the 

 enquiry, to very unexpected results, — an examination of the 

 structure of the ovarum of the genus Viburnum. I think I 

 shall be able to show in the course of the following remarks, 

 either that the structure of the ovary of this very old and 

 almost universally known genus, is unknown, or that two 

 distinct genera are combined under that name. 



On the structure of the Ovarium and generic character of 



Viburnum. 

 This, judging from the circumstance of Sprengel quoting 

 Virgil as his authority for the name, seems to be a very old 

 appellation. Linnaeus quotes Tournefort as his authority for 

 it, but was himself the first to fix its limits by a precise 

 definition, which was in these words, " Pentandria trigynia. 

 Calyx 5 partitus superus. Corolla 5-fida. Bacca \-sperma." 

 No notice is taken either here or in the extended natural 



