Notes on Indian Botany. 497 



ordinal character of our Prodromus two species are indicated, 

 which I have here taken up, and our Lantia venulosa, is a 

 genuine member of the genus. But beyond these I have not 

 met with a single notice of any species referable to the genus. 

 This I look upon as the more remarkable, considering how 

 numerous the species are, and the wide geographical range 

 they occupy. Java, Sumatra, Malacca, Tenasserim, Chitta- 

 gong, Silhet, the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, all furnish 

 species to my present list, and I feel pretty certain that my 

 Herbarium still contains several undescribed species, which 

 are concealed among an extensive unarranged collection from 

 Assam and Mergui. 



Among the species here described, I have only been able to 

 identify two of Blume's, and even of these I still entertain 

 doubts, though both are from the Eastward. Whether I am 

 indebted for so many new species to their being all really un- 

 described, or to the brevity and consequent insufficiency of his 

 characters, remains to be ascertained by comparison of speci- 

 mens. Acting under this uncertainty, I have endeavoured to 

 avoid Blume's error by giving greater compass to the defi- 

 nitions, at once to ensure precision in my characters, and to 

 lighten the labours of those who come after me, by rendering 

 as easy as possible the identification of my species, when the 

 plant under examination is one of them. This however it 

 must be acknowledged is not always an easy affair, so great 

 is the tendency in this genus to variation, especially in the 

 number of parts of the flower, the organ from which in 

 other genera the most stable characters are derived, which, 

 unavoidably, leads to the construction of loose definitions. 

 The corolla moreover in several of my specimens is wanting, 

 and as it generally furnishes good distinctive marks, mine 

 are in these cases necessarily imperfect to that extent. 



In drawing up the following generic character, I have de- 

 parted from the usual plan — that of introducing a number 

 of unessential particulars into the essential character, and 



