1896. Emblica officinalis (Gaartner), arboreous,
ramous: floriferous branchlets many-leaved: leaves
linear oblong, obtuse at both ends: flowers axillary,
aggregate, small, yellowish.
This tree is frequently met with in gardens, the
fruit being used by the Natives for pickling, and as a
condiment. I have met with what appears to me
another species, but as my specimens are not in fruit
1 feel uncertain on that point. The genus is easily
distinguished from Phyllanthus by the cup-like lobed
disk which covers the ovary. The anthers, too, are
slightly different from those of most of the the Phyl-
lanthi in having a broader connective, separating the
2 cells to such a distance as to give each the appearance
of 2 cohering. This structure and the elongation
of the connective, mentioned in some of the preceding
species, are well shown at fig. 2 of this plate.
1897. Melanthesa turbinata (It. W., M. trun-
cata,' It. W. in Icon., Phyllanthus turbinatus, Roxb.,
Konig.), shrubby or arboreous: floriferous branchlets
bifarious: leaves oval, obtuse, entire, sometimes
slightly unequal-sided: flowers axillary, frequently
male and female in the same axil: male flower
turbinate (top-shaped), six-lobed; lobes inflexed,
nearly closing the orifice: stamens united, anthers
adhering by their backs to the columnar filament:
female calyx deeply 6-lobed, enlarging with the
fruit: fruit before maturity-baccate, when quite ripe,
dry and capsular, 3-valved. Seed 3, angular, arilled
at the base.
Neilgherries, Malabar, &c. This plant, Roxburgh
informs us,^ attains the size of a large tree among
the mountains of Orissa. I t is very common a little
below Coonoor, on the Neilgherries, but there I have
never seen it larger than a moderate sized shrub:
can it be that I am confounding 2 species under one
name ? Roxb. quotes the Hort. Mai. 5, tab. 3, for
his plant; I feel certain that that plate represents my
plant-even better than my own, and therefore unhesitatingly
adopt Roxburgh’s name.
. By a mistake, when writing the name on the drawing,
I wrote “ truncata” in place of “ turbinata.”
Fig. 12 of the plate represents the aril, but too large
in proportion to the seed—at least when the seed has
attained perfect maturity, which the one represented
had not.
1898. Melanthesa rhamnoides (Blume, Pkyl-
lanth. rhamnoides, Retz., Willd? P. vitis idcea, Roxb.)
leaves oval, rounded at the apex, acute at the base,
glabrous: peduncles axillary, the inferior ones paired,
male; upper ones solitary, female, about the length
the petiol : fruit embraced by the short calyx
(Blume): berries globose, bright red, mealy when ripe.
A common plant near the Coast.
H H bright-red fruit, when abundant, gives the
shrub a rather lively and attractive appearance. I attach
little or no value to characters taken from the rela-
tive position of the male and female flowers on the
noriferous branchlets, as I find them about as often
wrong as x*ight. The best characters I know for this
plant are, the prominent connective of the anthers,
thelarge ovary, in comparison with the small calyx,
and the red berries, not one of which Blume admits
mto his character, and therefore leaves room for
doubting whether the Indian plant be indeed the
same as the Java one, whence he takes his character.
Willdenow quotes Burm. Zel. tab. 88, for this plant,
which is a mistake, as it clearly belongs to his P.
midtiflorus.
1898. Melanthesa obliqua (R. W.), leaves ob-
long, obtuse, unequal-sided, blunt, flowers axillary,
several to g e th e rm a le calyx turbinate, lobes inflexed:
filaments united; anthers adnate: female calyx
six-lobed, enlarging with the fru it: stigmas 2-parted,
reflexed.
This is perhaps too nearly allied to M. turbinata,
but differs in the form of the leaves and in the male
flowers, which seem scarcely half the size. They both
appertain to Blume’s 2d section, “ stigmata semi-
bifida,” along with his M. Chinensis.
The genus Melanthesa is at once recognised, 1st,
by the form of its male flowers which are top-shaped,
forming a sort of cone, the marginal lobes of which
are abruptly turned in over the opening and rest
on the apex of the stamenoid column—and 2dly, by
the ovary which is truncated or even concave on the
apex, with the stigmas appressed to the surface.
1899. Anisonema multiflora (R. W., Phyll. mid-
tiflorus, Willd., Roxb., Katon Niruri, Hort. Mai. 5 tab.
44., Rhamnus Zeylanica, &c., Burm., Zeyl. tab. 88.),
shrubby, primary branches virgate, young shoots
pubescent: floriferous ramuli angular: leaves nearly
oval, obtuse, bifarious: flowers axillary, aggregated,
several males and usually 1 female: male flowers
purplish; berries 8-12-seeded, dark purple or black,
soft and pulpy.—Sweetish tasted.
This is a common shrub near water, and when it
has the support of bushes often climbs to a great
height, hence the probability of this being Roxburgh’s
P. scandens.
This plant clearly belongs to A. de Jussieu’s genus
Anisonerm, and I think there can be no doubt of this
being P. midtiflorus of Roxb. and Willdenow. My
figure, to my eye, seems scarcely so characteristic of
the features, if I may so say, of the plant as Bur-
man’s in the Th. Zeylanicus.
Ceratogynum (R. W.).
Gen. Char. Monoecious. Perianth six-parted,
lined within with a broad six-lobed disk, lobes free on
the margin. Corolla and glands none. Stamens 3,
filaments united below into a column, free and spreading
above, anthers 2-celled: covered in aestivation by
the free margins of the lobes of the disk: cells collateral.
Female perianth six-parted in a double
series. Corolla and glands none. Ovary truncated, 3-
angular, 3-sided, 3-celled with 2 pendulous ovules in
each. Styles 6, slightly adhering by pairs, springing
from the outer angles, not the centre, of the ovary
(“ Styles from the horn of the germ and not from the
centre, each 2-cleft,” Roxb.). Capsule globose, 3-celled,
6-seeded. Sufiruticose plants: floriferous branch-
lets alternate, spreading: leaves ©vate: flowers axillary,
male and female mixed; at first two or three
from each, afterwards becoming racemose in the lower
axils.
1900. Ceratogynum rhamnoides (R. W., Ph.
rhamnoides, Roxb. not Willd.).
No station is given, the drawing of the plant and
figs. 1, 2 of the analysis were taken from recent spe