Ivi 



LETTKRS OF WILLIAM GMIFFITH. 



Then again where are their roots ? Flow opposed to late ideas 

 of the absolute distinction of the three great divisions. Also, please 

 *o take a bottle of spirits and deposit specimens in it. IshalU 

 not be very sorry to get back to Malacca, this is a delightful place 

 truly, but one is interrupted, and the lectures at the Medical College 

 consume much time. For Botany, no place can exceed Malacca. 



I have this moment received the palm seed, with your letters : 

 the palm is evidently undescribed ; and will if not a new genus, turn 

 out I think, an Arenga. I shall be in the fidgits until I get speci- 

 mens : please take care and do not direct them here, as I shall have 

 left before they arrive ; but to me, care of Willis and Earle : Did I 

 ever mention a circumstance connected with some unique speci- 

 mens, Thismia Brownonis, the monocotyledonous Rafflesiacea?. 



Bot. Garden, July 12, 1844. 



Thanks for the drawing of the Palm ; all now depends upon the 

 leaves. If bipinnate, it is a Caryota ; if pinnate, a new genus, or sub 

 genus. It appears to be a fine species ; is it dioicous or monoicous ? 

 is the juice especially of the fruit acrid ? I must write to Wallich 

 for them, if they go to him ; after I leave the Garden. 



I hope to make you up a magnificent Herbarium of Garden 

 plants ; and you will of course get Grewia floribunda and Brown- 

 lowia. I have a third genus from Mergue, with pentadelphous 

 stamina, and many winged fruits. I hope when I clear off the col- 

 lections, to be able to publish characters of the new genera. I am 

 now at the Malacca plants. 



I will keep your notice of L ... for the Journal: please remember 

 the specimens in spirits. I must get you to undertake some parts of 

 the Malacca plants, as we have not been able to boast of a paper from 

 you yet. My plan for the genera would be this ; first of all, a parti- 

 cular table of the species, (numbers) of each family of each flora, with 

 a concise description of features, climates and situation ; then a general 

 table ; then the new genera. The tables would be very useful, al- 

 though the identity of species might be only approximate. 



Just look at the enclosed fragment. I suppose it to be Neesia 

 from the fruit, it balances between Sapoteae and Bombacese, Durio- 

 necBy it is a new species with Sapoteous seed, and much of Albumen ! ! 



