198 JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 



taking those acuminate gentry the Patisnse under 

 Wallichia? glabra is a Tappanoolian. I am not however de- 

 cided that it shall be so. I shall perhaps have something more 

 splendid to name, only I should like it to be Pentandrian that it 

 may come out soon. 



During the two days we stayed at Tappanooly. T scrambled 

 over not a few hill and forest tracts, but the season is not the 

 best. The night we came in, we had a narrow escape. "We went 

 ashore on Mansilar Island in the evening, the vessel continuing 

 under sail, night came on, the ship outsailed us, we lost sight of 

 her, and had to row about 20 miles in the dark without compass 

 and no stars visible. Ten minutes after we did get on board, 

 (which was at one o'clock at night) there came on a most furious 

 squall which nearly drove us from our anchors, and would have 

 sent us and the boat, had we been out in it. to the D-l in donble 

 quick time. However we were born under lucky stars. On Man- 

 silar, we found what I take to be Schrebera Swietenioides Roxb., 1S9 

 a delightfully fragrant tree. The Camphor trees were not in 

 flower, 100 but we cut down one and got some Camphor out of it 

 a piece of good fortune, as one in a hundred is only found to con- 

 tain it. They are indeed the monarchs of the forest. The one 

 cut down measured 90 ft. to the first branch, diameter in propor- 

 tion, and perfectly straight. I have got young plants, and also 

 of the Styrax Benzoin. 101 Dryobalanops is a confounded her- 

 baceous name, and is nonsensia? nimis afhnis ! What think you of 

 a fourth species of Didymocarpus, 102 which I have a great mind 

 to call D. ornithopuSj for the capsules are arranged in such a way 

 as to look very like crow's feet. I am almost at a loss how to 



188. Jack proposed Wallichia as an alternative for his Patisna — but 

 Wallich called it TJrophyllum, see note Xo. 175. However Blume in his 

 catalogue of the Buitenzorg gardens published Wallichia as Beinwardt '=s 

 name for the genus. Now Beinwardt was in charge of these famous 

 Gardens when Jack went to Java in the hope of recuperating his health : 

 (See p. 239 froward) so that it is probable that Beinwardt got the name 

 Wallichia from Jack then, used it there, and when Blume succeeded Bein- 

 wart without knowing the history of the name, it was ascribed to Bein- 

 wardt. Note the connection of the name Urophyllum, or tail-leaf, with 

 Jack 's expression ' ' acuminate gentry. 



189. This plant is not recorded as Sumatran by Miquel in his account 

 of the Flora of Sumatra. 



190. See note No. 123. 



191. Styrax Benzoin, Dryand., was considerably cultivated in Sumatra 

 at this time, but rather in the interior: and the plant was scarcely familiar 

 to botanists. 



192. Didymocarpus corniculata, Jack in Malaya?} Miscellanies, i. part 

 5, p. 4 (1820). 



Jour. Straits Branch 



