APRIL— JUNE, 1857.] Neio Cinghalese Plants. 105 
imperfect to permit me either to affirm or deny this, and I have seen 
no specimens ; but all the species with which I am acquainted, 
either by specimens or figures, are furnished with thorns and smooth 
leaves, except the original species {Trophis aspera) : in all, except 
it, the ovary undergoes an unequal development, the side to which 
the ovule is attached enkrging more rapidly than the opposite one ; 
so that the style, which at first is at the apparent as well as real 
apex of the ovary, appears at length lateral, and the ovule becomes 
more elevated than the base of the style. 
The original "and genuine species of Epicarpurus scarcely exhi- 
bits any tendency to this kind of resupination, and has no spines. 
To the spinous section I refer Tropin's spinosa, Roxb. Fl. Ind. vol, 
iii. p. 762 ( T. iaxi/ormis. Hook, et Arn. in Bot. Beech. Voy. p. 215, 
or T. taxotdes, Roxb. in E. I. C. Mus. tab. 120, and in Roth, Nov. 
Sp. p. 368), Epicarpurus Tmiorensis^ Dene., which scarcely dififers 
as a species, unless characters not alluded to in the description and 
figure can be derived from the specimens, and a Ceylon species, 
from Mr. Thwaites, lately submitted to my inspection, in which the 
perianth of the female flower does not seem to enlarge with and at 
length conceal the fruit, in that respect resembling more the ge- 
nuine Epicarpurus, while the foliage and fruit are those of the spu- 
rious group. All these have the female flowers solitary or nearly 
so, and the males in globular heads or very short nearly globular 
racemes ; but if there be no mistake in Blume's work, his Trophts 
spinosa has the flowers spicate (at least his generic character indi- 
cates this), and his short description of Vrtica spinosa seems to in- 
dicate the same structure. 
Epicarpurus microphyllus, Raoul in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3. vol. ii. 
p. 117, and Choix de PI. Nouv. Zelande, p. J 4. t. 8, has the male 
flowers in bracteated spikes or rather catkins, and the female as in 
Epicarpurus orioitalis, but the embryo is described " cotyledonibus 
conduplicatis eequalibus plicatis foliaceis." Raoul aSds, " Notre 
Epicarpurus microphyllus appartient bien au genre ou je I'ai classe 
par forme de ses cotyledons : les Tropins ont les cotyledons charnus 
et tres inegaux, tandis que dans la plante qui nous occupe ils sont 
chifi'onnes et foliaces.'* Were the only dilFerence between Tropin's 
9 
