MYRICA SAPIDA 
t )0 
of Asiatic Researches, p. 380. In Nepal, I found it growing wild, and also cultivated 
in gardens. The fruit ripens in the rains, has a pleasing appearance, and a refreshing, 
acidulous taste. It is known there only by the name of Kobusi ; to the westward it is 
called Kaephul. 1 venture to say that Ksempfer’s tree is the same as ours: his descrip¬ 
tion, however, agrees better with it, than the figure which he gives of the fruit; Thun- 
berg only refers to it among his planter obscurce , in his flora of Japan, p. 388. Its 
wood is hard, of a pale brown color. The leaves, on being rubbed, have a pleasantly 
aromatic, though faint smell: in very young plants, they are strongly serrated, but 
they soon lose their serratures, and as the tree grows up, they become perfectly entire. 
In the Honourable Company’s botanic garden at Calcutta, the trees which were intro¬ 
duced from Nepal since 1818, have thriven luxuriantly, but as yet have not shown any 
disposition to blossom. 
How far Roxburgh’s Myrica integrifolia , Hort. beng. p. 71, is the same as our 
species, is a question which I cannot as yet decide. I possess no specimens of it; but 
judging from the manuscript account, and the figure preserved at the garden, I should 
think they are quite distinct. I subjoin Roxburgh’s description. 
“ Myrica integrifolia. Leaves laneeolar, entire, smooth ; scales of the female 
aments reniform-cordate, one or two flowered ; drupes oval, granulated. 
“ Sophee, the vernacular name in Sylhet, where it is indigenous, and grows 
. to the size of the apple tree in Europe. Flowering time December and January, 
and the fruit ripens in May, when they are picked by the natives, and used as 
a condiment: in their raw state, though inviting to the eye, they are too sour to be 
relished. 
“ Branch lets very raraous ; the tender shoots considerably hairy. Leaves 
permanent, alternate, approximate, round every part of the apices of the branchlets, 
short-petioled, laneeolar, entire, and perfectly smooth ; length from three to six inches 
by about one broad. Stipules none. Female Aments axillary, generally solitary, 
cylindric, rarely more than an inch long, considerably villous, many flowered. 
Scales reniform-cordate, somewhat acuminate ; the back sprinkled with small, yellow, 
shining grains ; one or two flowered, intermixed with many small, fleshy scales, resem¬ 
bling a perianth. Germs minute, ovate, one-celled, containing a single ovulum, attach¬ 
ed to the top of the ooll. Stylo* onc , * Tr<> Drupe o\ al, size of a prune. 
Nut oblong, thick and very hard, a little flattened, the two edges rather extended and 
somewhat sharp, densely clothed with an immense quantity of fine, white hair in pen- 
nicilliform tufts. Pulp consists of closely impacted, but distinct, clavate, succulent, 
yellow bodies. Seed ovate, oblong. Integument single, membranaceous. Perisperm 
none. Embryo inverse. Cotyledons conform to the seed, amygdaline. Radicle superior.’’ 
The above account was no doubt taken from dried specimens; and although al¬ 
lowances must be made for a somewhat altered appearance of the growing plant, still 
there appear points of distinction between Roxburgh’s tree and ours, which hardly 
admit of their being united into one species. The male inflorescence, which Dr. 
Roxburgh has not described, is delineated in his drawing: it consists of very small 
and short, axillary, simple aments, twice the length only of the petiols ; the lemale 
aments are also very short; the fruit is full twice as large as ours. Some of the leaves 
aonear remotely serrate. The following specific character might perhaps be adopted. 
M integrifolia, Roxb. folds lanceolatis, integerrimis, Itevibus, deorsum attenuatis; 
amends distinctis, axillaribus, solitariis, simplicibus, brevissimis, flosculis approxima- 
*" ' Fromthe lat^Mr.' W. Jack, I received in 1821, the outline of a fen,ale branch of a 
.bird species, under the name of “ Baa Lumbey ; Myrica? an sap.da W all (K*plml)! 
I found the tree in the forests of Singapore, covered with flowers, m October 1822. 
From these sources I am able to give the following specific character and deacnpUon 
of the tree which I call Myrica Farquhariana. Folns c.u.eato-lanceolatis, mte- 
