H. C. Botanic Gardens^ Calcutta. 247 



Arbor mediocris^freti Malaccensis incola^ corona conica 

 densa. Folia alterna, minute bistipulata, coriacea, crenato- 

 serrata, Flores axillares, racemosi vel solitarii, inconspicui. 

 Fructus subglobosus, vertice umbilicatus. Habitus Celas- 

 trineus, « 



Siphonodon celastrineus. 



Arbor mediocris, corona conica densa. Ramiili flexuosuli. 

 Folia alterna, bistipulata, stipulis (lobi folii) dentiformibus 

 minutis.* Petiolus brevis. Lamina oblonga, obtusiuscula, 



* By this term I wish to express my idea of the stipulse of this 

 particular plant. I am inclined, moreover, to attribute a similar origin 

 to these organs in all cases, and they are by far the most numerous, in 

 which they have, at some period at least, an ascertainable connection 

 with the leaf to which they are referred. At an early period of their 

 development they answer with sufficient exactness to the above term. 



In such instances, however, of interpetiolar stipulse as I have exa- 

 mined, chiefly in tropical Rubiaceae and in Rhizophorese, I have scarce- 

 ly ever found these organs to present in initio the required division, 

 although their composition has been subsequently ascertainable either 

 from the division of the apex, or from the source of the vascular sup- 

 plies, which last is still more, perhaps, decisive of their origin. 



The question, so much discussed, of the real nature of some of the 

 component parts of the verticilli of foliaceous organs in Galium and its 

 allies, appears to me to be only capable of solution by examination of 

 the sources of their primary vascular bundles. For I have seen in 

 Coffea hengalensis occasional appearances indicating the possible deri- 

 vation of an apparently true lamina from two stipulse, which, as usual, 

 derived their vascular supplies from those given off to the leaves. 



In connection with leaves I may remark, that their divisions are 

 originally independent of the presence of vascular, or fibrous, or of any 

 elongated form of tissue. Any hypothesis, therefore, which endeavours 

 to establish the relation of cause and effect between the nerves or veins 

 and the divisions of leaves must, it appears to me, be erroneous. So far 

 as I have enquired into the subject] of the development of these organs 

 it has been apparent, that all leaves are simple and cellular ah origine, 

 the degree of division being dependent on the degree of development, so 

 that the most complex form of leaf, such as a " folium tripinnatum vel 

 supra decompositum" would present at different periods all the different 

 degrees of division, which Botanists distinguish by so many terms. The 



2 r 



