3^0 
COMMENTARY ON 
Hortus Malabaricus (iii. 49, t. 42), to form a new genus, 
which he called Crateva, the Niirvala being scarcely distinct 
from a Capparis, while the Bilacus belongs to the tribe of 
Aurantise. Things respecting the Bilacus continued in this 
state^ only the name Crateva was changed into Crataeva, 
and the Bilacus was called Bilanus (Willd. Sp. PI. ii. 853), 
until Dr Roxburgh proposed that it should be called Cor- 
rea; but, another plant having obtained this name, the 
Bilacus by Persoon was called ^gle marmehs, the appel- 
lation that it still retains. 
In every part of India this tree is common. The natives 
of Ava call it Oush-shit ; those on the banks of the Ganges, 
in the spoken dialects, call it Bel, corrupted from the Vilva 
cf the sacred tongue : but as the fruit is dedicated to the 
god Siva, it is usually called Sriphula, or the Sacred fruit. 
In the Hortus Bengalensis it is stated, that a variety, with 
a small fruit, is the Sriphula ; and I have often heard the 
natives distinguish the Sriphula from the Bel ; but on re- 
questing a Pandit, attached to my survey, to bring me the 
Sriphula, he brought me a fruit in shape and size exactly 
resembling that marked A in Rumphius. The fruit of this 
tree I shall here describe on the plan of Gsertner, and this, 
I believe, will be new to the European botanist. 
Fructus obovatus, magnitudine ovi anserini, laevis;, glandu- 
loso-punctatus^ odoratus, absque rudimento vel calycis vel stig- 
matis, apice subumbilicatus, parietibus lignosis crassis unilocu- 
larisj farctus pulpo subfarinaceo, fibris paucis intermixto, 10 
seu 12 loculari. Loculi verticales, remoti. Semina in singulis 
loculis quina seu sena, uno super alterum posito, gelatine pauco 
pellucido tecta;, ovalia, magnitudine pisi compressa, pilis longis 
involuta. Integumentum simplex, membranaceum, crassum, 
intus politum, ex embryone facile secedens. Pevispermum nul- 
lum. Embryo forma seminis. Cotyledones crassae, maxim £6, 
albae, hinc convexae, inde planae. Radicula parva inter cotyle- 
donum margines nidulans, nunc ad extremitatera^ tunc versus 
latera posita. 
