76 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



orange-scarlet, of pale yellow, and of bright orange, which grows deeper every day, and forms a 

 variety of shades, according to the age of each blossom that opens in the fascicle. The vegetable 

 world scarce exhibits a richer sight than an Asoca tree in full bloom ; it is about as high as an 

 ordinary Cherry-tree. A Brahmin informs me, that one species of the Asoca is a creeper, and 

 Jayadeva gives it the epithet ' voluble f the Sanscrit name will, I hope, be retained by botanists, as 

 it perpetually occurs in the old Indian poems, and in treatises on religious rites/" 



Mr. Harrington writes of it thus : — 



"Asoca: This is the true name of a charming tree, inaccurately named Asjogam in the Hort. 

 Malab., vol. 5, tab. 59. It is a plant of the eighth class and first order, bearing flowers of exquisite 

 beauty ; and its fruit, which Yan Eheede had not seen, is a legume, compressed, incurved, long, 

 pointed, with six, seven, or eight seeds ; it will be described very fully in a paper intended for the 

 Society. The Brahmins, who adore beautiful objects, have consecrated the lovely Asoca: they plant 

 it near the temples of Siva, and frequently mention a grove of it, in which Ttavan confined the 

 unfortunate Sita. The eighth day from the new moon of Chaitra, inclusive, is called Asocashtami." 



We suspect that more species than one are mixed under the common name of Asoca. The late 

 Mr. Griffith found in Burmah, cultivated, a tree with very dense corymbs of flowers, and leaves in 

 3-pairs, the lowest of which is distinctly heart-shaped. This is scarcely the Asoca of Bengal, but is 

 much nearer the Java plant, called by Zollinger, Jonesia minor, without being the same. Then 

 again the plant now figured is surely not what Sir W. Hooker has given in the Botanical 

 Magazine, t. 3018, with small whole-coloured flowers, having a reflexed limb, and leaves in 5-pairs; 

 nor do either sufficiently correspond with Roxburgh's figure in the Asiatic Researches. In short, 

 the question requires that elucidation at the hands of an Indian botanist, which a European cannot 

 undertake. 



Those who assert that the wholesome la» r of priority in deciding the validity of botanical names 

 is immutable, will do well to consult the history of this plant, first called by Linnaeus Saraca indica, 

 then by Burmann Saraca arboresceus, and twenty-seven years later, Jonesia Asoca, by .Roxburgh, 

 whose name is, nevertheless, universally adopted. 



