formation communicated to me by Mr. BURT, the gentleman who had charge of the plants that flowered at Gaya, and who gave Sir WILLIAM JONES the drawing and description thereof. Defcription of the Plant. Root, it is already defcribed above. Stem, lower part perennial, involved in fibrous fheaths, &c. as above defcribed; the upper part herbaceous fuberect, fimple, from fix to twelve inches long. Leaves four-fold, the lowermoft pair of the four radical are opposite, feffile, oblong, forming, as it were a two-valved fpathe; the other pair are alfo oppofite petiol'd, cordate, margins waved, and pointed; those of the ftem feffile, and lanceolate, all are smooth on both fides. Corymb terminal, first divifion trichotomous. Bracts awl'd. Calyx scarce any. Corol one petal'd, funnel-shaped, tube fomewhat gibbous. Border five-cleft. Stamens, filaments three, project above the tube of the corol; anthers incumbent. Pistil, germ beneath. Style erect, length of the tube. Stigma fimple. Pericarp, a fingle feed crowned with a pappus. ON ON THE FRUIT OF THE MELLORI. NOTE BY THE PRESIDENT. As far as we can determine the class and order of a plant from a mere delineation of its fruit, we may fafely pronounce, that the Léram of Nicobar is the Cádhi of the Arabs, the Cétaca of the Indians, and the Pandanus of our botanists, which is defcribed very awkwardly (as KOENIG first observed to me) in the Supplement to LINNEUS: he had himself described with that elegant concifenefs, which conftitutes the beauty of the Linnean method, not only the wonderful fructification of the fragrant Cétaca, but most of the flowers, which are celebrated in Sanferit, by poets for their colour or fcent and by phyficians for their medical uses; and, as he bequeathed his manufcripts to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, we may be sure, that the publick spirit of that illustrious naturalift will not fuffer the labours of his learned friend to be funk in oblivion. Whether the PANDANUS Léram be a new Species, or only a variety, we cannot yet pofitively decide; but four of the plants have been brought from Nicobar, and seem to flourish in the Company's Botanical Garden, where they will probably blossom; and the greatest encouragement will, I truft, be given to the cultivation of fo precious a vegetable. A fruit weighing twenty or thirty pounds, and containing a farinaceous substance, both palatable and nutritive in a high degree, degree, would perhaps, if it were common in these provinces, for ever secure the natives of them from the horrors of famine; and the Pandanus of Bengal might be brought, I conceive, to equal perfection with that of Nicobar, if due care were taken to plant the male and female trees in the same place, instead of leaving the female, as at present, to bear an imperfect and unproductive fruit, and the distant male to spread itself only by the help of its radicating branches. |