1837.] 



Contributions to Indian Botany, 



V 111.— Contributions to Indian Botany, No. 2. — By Robert Wight, 

 Esq. m. d., f. l. s., fyc. Member of the Imp. Acad. Naturae Curioro- 

 sum. Surgeon on the MaUras Establishment, » 



Dictyocarpus.* — R. W* 



Melochia, Willd, — Riedliea, D^Cand. Prod. Syst, Nat.— Wight and 

 Arnott, Prod, Fl. Ind. Orient. — Sida, Roxb. Fl. Ind. Vol. 3d. 



Nat, Opd, Malvacea.— Linn. Syst. Monadelphia decandria. 



When Mr. Arnott and myself were elaborating the orders Malvacese 

 and Byttneriaceae for our work, the specimens of this plant we had to 

 consult, were unfortunately so imperfect, as to prevent a careful analysis 

 of the parts of fructification. We were consequently constrained to fol- 

 low, without sufficient examination, the determination of the justly 

 celebrated botanist (Willdenow) who had first described it from, we 

 presumed, good specimens, aided by a short but precise character, from 

 the pen of the late Dr. Klein of Tranquebar, who sent him the speci- 

 mens. With these materials before him he referred the plant to the 

 genus Melochia. Decandolle afterwards without seeing it, but g uided by 

 Willdenow's description referred it without doubt to the genus Riedleia. 

 Roxburgh who, perhaps about the same time, or even earlier than Will- 

 denow, examined it and had a drawing taken (which was sent with the 

 rest of his collection of drawings to the India House), named it Sida 

 retusa ; afterwards, I presume from becoming acquainted with the true 

 Sida retusa, he changed the specific name but retained the generic one. 



Since the publication of our Prodromus, I find that Mr. Arnott has, 

 in an article in the Annates des Sciences Nature lies, vol. 2d, page 230, 

 quoted this plant as a true species of Riedleia ; while he expresses a 

 doubt as to the other species we have referred to the genus being really 

 species of it, whether as the result of after examination does not appear. 

 A slight examination, on my return to Madras in 1834, of recent speci- 

 mens, having led me to doubt the correctness of Willdenow and our- 

 selves in referring it to a Byttneriaceous genus, this last remark of Mr. 

 Arnott determined me to re-examine it with care, so soon as I could 

 procure specimens. Owing to its extreme rarity in the southern pro- 

 vinces, I had no opportunity of doing so until my present visit to Ma- 

 dras (where it is a common plant); the result is that 1 find it to be nei- 

 ther a Melochia, nor a Riedleia, nor referable to the same natural 

 order ; but that it forms a genus so very nearly allied to Sida, that might 

 perhaps be referred to it, were it not already so overloaded with spe- 

 cies that it is extremely difficult to unravel them. 



* Aiktvov rete, Kap7ro<s fructus ; in allusion to the reticulated carpels. 



