FEMALE. CAL. Four-parted; divifions egged, concave, pointed, permanent, propped by two small bracts; unless you call them the calyx. COR. None; unless you give the calyx that name. PIST. Germ roundish. Style very short, cylindrick. Stigma long, twoparted, permanent. PER. Berry one-feeded, navelled, fmooth, fomewhat flattened. SEED globular, arilled. LEAVES various, fome inverfe egged, fome oblong, fome oval, pointed, irregularly notched, alternate (fome oppofite), crowded, crisp, very rough veined, and paler beneath, smoother and dark above. Berry, deep yellow. The Pandits having only observed the male plant, infift that it bears no fruit. Female flowers axillary, from one to four or five in an axil. The root of this useful plant, which CA'LIDA's calls us'ira, has nine other names thus arranged in a Sanferit verse : Abhaya, Nalada, Sévya, Amrinála, Jalás'aya, Lámajjaca, Laghulaya, Avadába, Ishtacápať ha. It will be fufficient to remark, that Jalafaya means aquatick, and that Avadába implies a power of allaying feverish heat; for which purpose the root was brought by GAUTAMI' to her pupil SACONTALA; the flender fibres of it, which we know here by the name of C'has or Khafkhas, are most agreeably aromatick, when tolerably fresh; and among among the innocent luxuries of this climate, we may affign the first rank to the coolness and fragrance, which the large hurdles or fcreens in which they are interwoven, impart to the hottest air, by the means of water dashed through them; while the strong southern wind spreads the scent before it, and the quick evaporation contributes to cool the atmosphere. Having never feen the fresh plant, I gueffed from the name in VAN RHEEDE and from the thin roots, that it was the Afiatick ACORUS; but a drawing of Dr. ROXBURGH'S has convinced me, that I was mistaken. 69. S'AMI': SYN. Sactu-p'halá, S'ivá. LINN. Farnefian MIMOSA. Thorns double, white, black-pointed, ftipular. Leaves twice-feathered; first, in three or four pairs; then in pairs from fourteen to fixteen. Spikes globular, with fhort peduncles; yellow, perfuming the woods and roads with a rich aromatick odour. A minute gland on the petiols below the leaflets. Wood, extremely hard, used by the Bráhmens to kindle their facred fire, by rubbing two pieces of it together, when it is of a proper age and fufficiently dried. Gum femipellucid. Legumes rather spindle-shaped, but irregular, curved, acutely pointed, or daggered, with twelve or fourteen feeds rather prominent, gummy within. Seeds roundish, compreffed. The gum of this valuable plant is more tranfparent than that of the Nilotick or Arabian fpecies; which the Arabs call Ummulghilán, or Mother of Serpents, and the Perfians, by an eafy corruption, Mugbílàn. SAMI'RA means a fmall Samì; but I cannot learn to what fpecies that diminutive form is applied. VOL. II. LAJJA'RU LAJJA'RU (properly Lajjálu) fignifies bafhful, or fenfitive, and appears to be the word engraved on a plate in the Malabar Garden; though VAN RHEEDE pronounces it LAURI: there can be no doubt, that it is the fwimming MIMOSA, with fenfitive leaves, root enclofed in a fpungy cylinder, and flowerets with only ten filaments. LINNAEUS, by a mere flip, has referred to this plant as his Dwarf ÆSCHYNOMENE; which we frequently meet with in India.-See 9 H. M. tab. 20. The epithet Lajjálu is given by the Pandits to the Modeft MIMOSA. 70. CHANDRACA: SYN. Chandrapushpa. VULG. Chhota Chánd, or Moonlet. RHEEDE: Sjouanna Amelpodi, 6 H. M. t. 47. LINN. Serpent OPHIOXYLUM. CAL. Perianth, five-parted, fmall, coloured, erect, permanent; divifions, egged, acutish. COR. Petal, one. Tube very long in proportion; jointed near the middle, gibbous from the enclosed anthers; above them, rather funnelform. Border five-parted; divifions, inverse-egged, wreathed. PIST. Germ above, roundish. Style threadform. Stigma irregularly headed; with a circular pellucid base, or nectary, extremely viscid. PER. Berry mostly twinned, often fingle, roundish, smooth, minutely pointed, one-feeded. SEED on one fide flattish, or concave; on the other, convex. Flowers fafcicled. Bracts minute, egged, pointed, coloured. Tube of the corol, light purple; border, small, milkwhite. Calyx, first pale pink, then bright carmine. Petiols, narrow-winged. Leaves oblongoval, pointed, nerved, dark and gloffy above; mostly three-fold, fometimes paired, often four-fold near the fummit; margins wavy. Few shrubs in the world are more elegant than the Chandra, efpecially when the vivid carmine of the Perianth is contrasted not only with the milkwhite corol, but with the rich green berries, which at the fame time embellish the fafcicle: the mature berries are black, and their pulp light purple. The Bengal peasants affure me, as the natives of Malabar had informed RHEEDE, that the root of this plant feldom fails to cure animals bitten by fnakes, or ftung by scorpions; and, if it be the plant, fuppofed to affift the Nacula, or VIVERRA Ichneumon, in his battles with ferpents, its nine fynonyma have been ftrung together in the following distich: Náculi, Surafá, Ráfná, Sugandhá, Gandhanáculi, Náculéfhtá, Bhujangácsbi, Ch'hatricá, Suvahá, nava. The vulgar name, however, of the ichneumon-plant is Ráfan, and its fourth Sanferit appellation fignifies well-fcented; a quality which an ichneumon alone could apply to the Ophioxylum; fince it has a ftrong, and rather a fetid, odour: the fifth and fixth epithets, indeed, seem to imply that its scent is agreeable to the Nacula; and the Seventh (according to the comment on the Amaracósh), that it is offenfive to fnakes. It is afferted by fome, that the Ráfan is no other than the Rough Indian ACHYRANIHES, and by others, that it is one of the Indian ARISTO LOCHIAS. From refpect to LINNEUS, I leave this genus in his mixed class; but neither my eyes, nor far better than mine, have been able to discover its male flowers; and it must be confeffed, that all the descriptions of the Ophioxylum, by RumPHIUS, BURMAN, and the great botanist himself, abound with erroneous references, and unaccountable oversights. 71. PIPPALA: SYN. Bódhi-druma, Chala-dala, Cunjarás'anas, Anwat'tha. eyes LINN. Holy FICUS: but the three following are alfo thought holy. Fruit fmall, round, axillary, feffile, moftly twin. Leaves hearted, scalloped, fcalloped, gloffy, daggered; petiols very long; whence it is called chaladala, or the tree with tremulous leaves. 72. UDUMBARA: SYN. Jantu-p'hala, Yajnyánga, Hémadugdhaca. LINN. Racemed FICUS. Fruit peduncled, top-shape, navelled, racemed. Leaves egg-oblong, pointed, fome hearted, obfcurely fawed, veined, rough above, netted beneath. VAN RHEEDE has changed the Sanferit name into Roembadoe: it is true, as he says, that minute ants are hatched in the ripe fruit, whence it is named Jantu-p'hala; and the Pandits compare it to the Mundane Egg. 73. PLACSHA: SYN. Jati, Parcati. VULG. Pácari, Pácar. LINN. Indian FICUS citron-leaved; but all four are Indian. Fruit feffile, fmall, moftly twin, crouded, whitish. Leaves oblong, hearted, pointed, with very long slender petiols. 74. VATA: SYN. Nyagródha, Bahupát. VULG. Ber. LINN. Bengal Ficus, but all are found in this province, and none peculiar to it. Fruit roundish, blood-red, navelled, moftly twin, feffile. Calyx threeleaved, imbricated. Leaves fome hearted, moftly egged, obtuse, broadish, most entire, petiols thick, short; branches radicating. The |