remote from the acrimony of those, the produce of Anacardiaceae, mark these tribes as nitt very
correctly associated in the same natural order, and go far to confirm the propriety of their
separation not merely as tribes of one larger order, but as distinct orders. '1 he Peninsular flora
embraces several species of this tribe, some of them affording useful products. The resinous
juice of both species of Bomeliia is collected,and is used partly as frankincense and partly as
pitch. That of Canarium commune has properties similar to Copaiva, while the kernels of the
seed,on the other hand, afford by expression a bland edible oil. The Canarium strict urn Roxb.
is known in Malabar under the name of the black dammer tree, in contradistinction to the
Materia or white dammer. This tree is rather common in the alpine forests about Courtal-
lum in the Tinnevelly district, and is there regularly rented for the sake of its dammer. The
dammer is transparent and of a deep brownish yellow or amber colour when held between the
eye and the light, but when adhering to the tree has a bright shining black appearance. The
flowers of this species I have not seen, the fruit is a very hard, 3-celled, oval nut, tapering at
each end. .
Of the species of the genus Protium, of which the Peninsular flora embraces 4 or
5, I have not heard that any are in this country turned to a useful purpose. The three first
in our list, to which the genus is now restricted, are all jungle trees, with ..soft very fragile
wood, but so far as I recollect, never exhuding resinous juices—the fourth, Balsamodendron
(Protium) Gileadense though a most common plant in some parts of the country, and constantly
used for making fences, I found to be totally unknown here, as the plant producing
the balm so highly esteemed and cherished, ‘ as one of the riches of Arabia.’ This circumstance
led me to suspect either, that the so-called plant of India was not the same species as
the Abyssinian and Arabian one bearing the same name, or that some other plant produces
the Balsam. Which of these was the more probable conjecture I was unable to say, but suspected
the latter, as Heudelotia, an African genus, (proposed by the authors of the Flora Sene-
gambite) but generically quite identical with Balsamodendron, though a common shrub in
Senegal is not mentioned as affording Balsam. This-question has been at length settled by
Dr. Arnott, who has ascertained that the Indian and Arabian plants are n o t. identical.
Then the question now presents itself, is it desirable that we should attempt to introduce both
the Myrrh and Balsam of Gilead plants since both are natives of the same tracts of country,
and both afford produce of great commercial value ? >
R em a r k s o n G e n e r a a n d S p e c i e s . My recent collections have furnished me with what I
consider a new species of Semecarpus and one of Buchanania, besides specimens of a plant referable
to neither, nor to Holigarna, to which last however, in some respects, it appears allied.
As I have not seen the flowers, and the fruit of Pegia is imperfectly described I am unable from
my specimens to determine whether or not it is a species of that genus. It differs from Holigarna,
to which it approaches in habit, and in having a fleshy, not bony, perecarp filled with
minute cells: in having a superior not inferior fruit, with an erect, not pendulous seed, and in
the embryo being situated at the base (next the calyx) of the fruit, not laterally and towards its
apex. From Semecarpus it differs in wanting the bony perecarp and the enlarged torus. Under
the impression that it may prove a Pegia I have subjoined the character of that genus as given
by Meisner from Colebrooke, whose paper in the Linnsean transactions I have not an opportunity
of consulting for myself.
The new (?) species of Semecarpus may possibly be the variety S. cunifolius, but if so I certainly
think it a distinct species. The leaves are from 15 to 18 inches long, tapering nearly two-
thirds of their length towards the base, the remaining third ending in an acute lanceolate point,
hence -.they may be described as cuneato-lanceolate. Panicles of fruit (1 have only seen the
female plant) axillary and terminal, several congested near the apex of the branch, the lower
half of the half grown perecarp embraced by the cup-shaped calyx, whether it afterwards enlarges
I am unable to say, the young seed is lateral, pendulous from near the apex. The new
species of Buchanania is at once distinguished by its coriaceous, even, glabrous, lanceolate,
acute leaves, so accurately resembling those of the Mango, that but for the flowers I should
at once have referred it to that genus. The fruit I have not seen. A leaf of the species of
Rhus here figured was long ago represented by Burman ( Thesaur. Zeylan. table 45) under the
name of Filix Zeylanicus Arborescens, &c. but had never so far as I am aware been taken up
by any author until Dr. Arnott and I described it in our Prodromus. I first found it at Cour-
tallum and since in Ceylon.
SEMECARPUS. .
S. Grahamii, (R. W. Icon. PI. Ind. Ort. 2350 Leaves
cuneato-lanceolate, acute, coriaceous, glabrous above,
pubescent beneath,petiol short, furnished with 4 subulate
bodies (as in Holigarna longfolia) panicles racemose,
contracted, congested towards the summits of the branches
: calyx truncated, cup-shaped, adnate, with the lower
half of tlieyoung fruit: styles 3, lateral, near the apex,
reflexed, stigmas capitate; ovary and young fruit covered
with rusty colored hairs; ovule solitary, pendulous
ffom the base of the styles.
I dedicate this species to the memory of my late
highly esteemed correspondent John Graham, Esq. of
Bombay, from whom I received along with many others,
the specimen here described marked “ 91, Holigarna ox
Semecarpus—a large tree called Bibop. It grows on the
ghauts.” In his premature removal science has lost an
able and devoted votary, at a time too when diligently
employed in the preparation and publication of a catalogue
of the plants of the Bombay Presidency.
The genera Semecarpus and Holigarna are so nearly
alike in their generic characters, in the earlier stages of
fructification, that I cannot be surprised at the doubt he
expressed as to its genus, as they are only distinguishable
by the one having inferior the other superior fruit,
which; at the period this one was gathered, is not so evident
as in its more advanced stages.
BUCHANANIA.
B . lanceolata, (R. W. Icon. PI. Ind. Ort. 237.) Leaves
lanceolate, acute, or acuminate, quite entire, glabrous,
congested towards the summits of the young shoots:
panicles pubescent, erect, terminal and axillary from
the summits of the branches, contracted: flowers small,
numerous, capitate on the ends of the short lateral divisions
of the panicle.
Malabar near Quilon.
- 1 have not seen the fruit. The leaves are so like
those of Mangifera indica that the same terms serve to
characterize both.
PEGIA. f
Gen. Char. Calyx persistent. Petals roundish. Disk
annular, fleshy, embracing the ovary. Style I, conical,
stigma simple. Berry globose, I-seeded.—Meisner.
This brief character is, I presume, copied from Cole-
brooke’s paper in the Linnsean transactions. The original
I do not possess the means o f consulting; but it
is too imperfect to admit of my referring with certainty
the following plant to it, the more so as the habit is not
given.
. P . ? Colebroolriana, (R. W. Ic. PI. Ind. Ort. 236.) Arboreous,
leaves coriaceous, .alternate, simple, oblong or
obovate, quite entire, acute or ending in a short abrupt
acumen, parallel!y veined, glabrous, racemes axillary, or
from the scars of fallen leaves, much shorter than the
leaves, many-flowered. Fruit superior, globose, pointed
with the persistent fleshy style , and capitate stigma:
perecarp containing between its laminae numerous small
cells, the base bound by a ring. Seed one, erect, cotyledons
thick, fleshy, radicle inferior.
•Hab.—Shevagerry Hills.
The leaves sometimes resemble those of some species
of Pterospermum. They are usually broader above and
some of them somewhat truncated at the apex, reticulated
and villous beneath. The imperfect remains of the
calyx in these specimens seem to indicate that it is 5-
lobed, and several of the fruit retain the fleshy ring
which originally bound the ovary.
BALSAMODENDRON.
The following remarks and characters I copy verbatim
from Dr. Arnott’s paper on this genus, published in the
Annals of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 85-86.
“ In theProdromusFlorffiPeninsulaelndia;Orientalis,
i. p. 176, Dr. Wight and I united this, as a subgenus, to
Protium, and it still appears to me doubtful if the two
be separated by sufficiently important characters: the
habit is, however, very different. In consequence of
the addition of several new species, the character given
by Dr. Wight and me, will require to be slightly altered,
as follows:
Calyx late vel tubuloso-campanulatus: torus disci-
formis in fundo calycis ovarium cingens, externe inter
singula stamina verrucula elevata instructus: stamina
octo: drupa ovata: nux obtusa angulata.
From this it is obvious that the shape of the calyx
and nut is not'sufficient to distinguish Balsamodendron
from the species we referred to the Protium of Burmann,
and that the principal character consists in the position
of the torus or disk.
All the East Indian species which I have seen have
the calyx* tubular-campanulate as in the Senegambia
one, (Heudelotia:) and Commiphora of Jacquein, while it
is broad and shallow in B. gileadense, and perhaps in the
other two from Arabia: but, as these last are not sufficiently
known, I cannot avail myself of that probable
difference of structure to subdivide the genus into sections.
The following is a synopsis of all the species
known.
1. B .B e rry i, Arn. spinescens, foliis longiusculepetio-
latis glabris, foliolis 3 cuneato-obovatis crenatis, termi-
nali latcralibus duplo majore, pedicellis unifloris brevibus,
petalis calyce breviter tubuloso subduplo longiori-
bus, fructu apiculato;—Protium Gileadense. (JV. and A .
Prod. Exel. syn.) Amyris Gileadensis, Roxb. FI. Ind.
ii. p. 246- Exel. syr>.
2. B. lloxburghii, Arn. spinescens, foliis petiolatis
glabris, foliolis 3, terminali ovali serrulato, lateralibus
minutis, pedicellis unifloris brevibus.—Amyris Commiphora.
3. B . Wightii, Arn. Spinescens, foliis sessilibus glabris,
foliolis 3, subaequalibus cuneato-obovatis acute
dcntalo-serratis, floribus sessilibus fasciculatis, fructu
subiter acuminato. .
7. B . Gileadense, Kunth; inerme, foliis petiolatis
glabris, foliolis 3, integerrimis obovato-oblongis, pedicellis
brevibus unifloris, calyce latiuscule campanulato.
B. Gileadense et B. opobalsamum.—Kunth.