VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AXD MALACCA. 107 



it makes tliem decay and makes spots on them, although I took 

 infinite pains to keep them locked up during- the damp weather. 



7. — In these days I obtained a Didynamia of the second 

 order, which by the natives is used against leprosy, an illness 

 frequently occurring here, specially among the poorer people. 

 One sees them at times begging in the streets with bent swollen 

 fingers; at times their fingers have even quite fallen off. 



The government here has a hospital for these people further 

 inland, but I could not learn what progress the doctors are mak- 

 ing there. The use of this remedy was unknown to the man who 

 had brought me the plant, as only the negroes know of it. I 

 made a botanical description of it. The flower calyx has only 

 four leaves ; the two outer ones are connate heart-shaped and 

 big; the inner leaves are quite narrow, bent back, and small. The 

 blossoms resemble the Columna (ringars). 



The capsula is compressed, round, and resembles the Rhinan- 

 thus. What is more remarkable in this plant is that the anthers 

 are attached to the longest stamens and run down to the tube 

 for an equal distance. They are ball-shaped and produce a 

 sort of yellow dust. The shorter stamina grow in a half circle 

 at the lower part of the blossom, and afterw^ards also run down 

 in the tube. At the end they are connate and the anther form a 

 kind of cross or an English x , but so that they separate in the 

 middle. They are white with a blueish tint and the pollen 

 has the same colour. The leaves have some resemblance with 

 the Corchoris; they are light-green and veined. The taste is 

 sharp and stringent ; the effect is diuretic. 



8. — I obtained some new plants, among them a Psychotria, 

 with party sweet, partly ill-smelling blossoms, of which I made 

 a short description. The difference of the Kaldeer which Mr. 

 Rheede in the Hortus Malabaricus p. 2, tab 1-2, calls kadi, drew 

 drew my attention to this kind of palm. Mr. Linne has in his 

 Flora Zeylonica placed them with the Bromeliai on account of the 

 the different anthers, but they are very different from them. 

 The ordinary kinds, which are very common here, and are those 

 which Mr. Rheede has drawn, belong, according to my observa- 

 tion, to the Dis plants, and only form a variety.*^ 



I found quite a different species in Junk Ceylon, when I 

 wandered over the mountain. It climbed on the highest trees ; 

 d He is hero speaking of Pandanfs, 



