xiv LETTERS OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 



very interesting genera. I will take care to despatch to you, such 

 seeds as may be acceptable to your Society, of whose tone 

 I beg to approve very much. I wish the Calcutta society 

 would open their eyes to the philosophy of Horticulture, the most 

 interesting part of the study. 



Peshowur : December \6th 1839. 

 I have not written to you for some time, I have nothing to tell 

 you beyond this, that I recommence travelling in a day or two, after 

 a halt of a month at this place ; at which, owing to the awful heat of 

 the season, Botany is quite at a discount. By way of exercise, I will 



amuse you with a few remarks on your No. of Illustrations, 



the only one that has reached me. Imprimis, from the plate of Mo- 

 runga^ you associate it I suppose, with Leguminosse. I should like to 

 see you defend this association, which I look upon as unnatural. I 

 have written to M. Decaisne my objection to his statement that it is 

 nearer Leguminosse than any other order. It is so closely allied to 

 Violariese, or that group, that it is impossible to separate it, in what 

 does it differ from Zanthophyllum but in its decided perigynism, and 

 very compound leaves ; in what point does it agree with Legumi- 

 nossB, except in these same. You pass over the unilocular anther, 

 and above all, the fruit, for a mere resemblance in habit. Naj^, I 

 will tell you more, that Zanthophyllum may have compound leaves 

 in the Lindleyan sense, and has glands like those of Morunga. De- 

 pend upon it, that whenever a pluri-carpellary form of Leguminosoe 

 shall be found, it will be apocarpous, not syncarpous as is Morunga. 

 Look at the disposition of the parts of the flower, look at its sta- 

 mina, its pollen, its ovarium, its fruit, its seed, and in all, most 

 manifest relations of affinity with Violarieae are to be found. It is 

 not a whit more papilionaceous in appearance than Zanthophyllum. 

 I am delighted at your location of Connaracese. I could show you 

 some Mergue remarks on Cuestis, which genus has a similar tendency. 

 I have got one Cnestis which cannot be distinguished from Oxalideae 

 at first sight, or otherwise than by the fruit (this from memory). 

 To Connaracese belongs the Eurycoma which I know well, and which 

 has something singular in respect to the change of situation of the 

 ovula as it becomes matured. Zygophyllese are unsatisfactory as 



