X 



LETTERS OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 



genera as I can get, I can do six a day with ease. By the way, I 

 should like to see any one explain to me the nature of the spathe of 

 Aroideae, although it appears very simple if you look at Pothos 

 scandens, but confoundedly puzzling if you look at Spathicarpa. 

 Sonneratia is certainly, T think Lythrariaceous, in which order there 

 is a tendency to no petals ? ; in all such cases, are they not con- 

 verted into stamina? Duabanga connects Sonneratia evidently with 

 LythrariesB, Sonneratia approaches Myrtaceae, especially some New 

 Holland forms having stomata on both sides of the leaf. S. apetala 

 may be a sub genus : on this I am not however certain. Faetidea?, 

 is by no means Myrtaceous. DeC. is most welcome to publish 

 Mergue Anonaceaa, or any thing else, for my travellings do not 

 admit of my doing any thing. Lindleys character of Hyalostemma 

 appears to me quite wrong. Imprimis, all Anonaceae are valvate, 

 secundis, his involucre appears to me to be the calyx, and the 

 corolla to be composed of 6 petals united into three lobes, I have 

 a very curious species from the Irrawaddi, but I cant find it at pre- 

 sent, I have another from the Khasyah Mountains, with a verrucosa 

 fruit as large as a big egg, 1 expect my men down from Churra 

 presently with the summer flora of that fine country. This ought to 

 give 3,000 sp, from those hills. I send other collectors towards 

 Nagpore, with ray friend Lieut. Kitto; and when I have the means, 

 I shall send some person into Munnipore,. 



Beta is almost as much Urticious as Chenopodious : has any one 

 remarked on this affinity; give it stipules, and it is Urticeous. Beta 

 is what I call an odd genuSy and would amply repay minute study. 

 This letter is not worth sending, except to shew how you are present 

 in my thoughts. » 



Shikarpore : Feb. 1539. 



I take much discredit to myself for having come so far, and been 

 away so long, without having written to you. But the truth is, I 

 have been so unbotanical of late, that I had little to say that could 

 interest you sufficiently at a distance of 2,000 miles. At present I 

 am in the worst country upon earth, that is, so far as botanical pa- 

 bulum goes, for I never saw such abominable sandy wastes as those 

 to which we have now become accustomed. 



