3. SE'P'HALICA':

SYN. Suvahá, Nirgudi, Nilicá, Niváricá.

VULG. Singahár, Nibári.

LINN. Sorrowful NYCTANTHES.

In all the plants of this fpecies examined by me, the calyx was villous; the border of the corol white, five-parted, each divifion unequally fubdivided; and the tube of a dark orange-colour; the ftamens and piftil entirely within the tube; the berries, twin, compreffed, capfular, two-celled, margined, inverse-hearted with a point. This gay tree (for nothing forrowful appears in its nature) fpreads its rich odour to a confiderable distance every evening; but at funrise it sheds most of its night-flowers, which are collected with care for the use of perfumers and dyers. My Pandits unanimously affure me, that the plant before us is their Sép hálicá, thus named because bees are supposed to sleep on its bloffoms; but Nilicà muft imply a blue colour; and our travellers infift, that the Indians give the names of Párijática or Párijáta to this useful species of Nyctanthes: on the other hand, I know that Párijáta is a name given to flowers of a genus totally different; and there may be a variety of this with blueish corols; for it is exprefsly declared, in the Amarcósh, that, "when the Sép hálica has white flowers, it is "named Swétafurafá, and Bhútavés'i.”

A.

SYN. Cunda.

LINN. Nyctanthes Sambac.

See RHEEDE: 6 H. M. tab. 54.

Flowers exquifitely white, but with little or no fragrance; ftem, petioles, and calyx yery downy; leaves egged, acute; below rather hearted.

3. SEPTALA:

SYN.

SYN. Navamallicá, Navamálicá.
VULG. Béla, Muta-béla.

BURM. Many-flowered Nyctanthes.
See 5 RUMPH. tab. 30. 6 H. M. tab. 50.

The bloffoms of this variety are extremely fragrant. Zambak (fo the word should be written) is a flower to which Perfian and Arabian poets frequently allude.

5. MALLICA:

SYN. Trinafúlya, Malli, Bhúpadi, Satabbíru.

VULG.

Désí-bélá.

LINN. Wavy-leaved NYCTANTHES.

Berry globular, fimple, one-celled, SEED large, fingle, globular.

According to RHEEDE, the Brahmens in the weft of India diftinguish this flower by the word Caftúri, or musk, on account of its very rich odour.

6. A'SP'HOTA': SYN. Vanamallì. VULG.

Banmallica.

LINN. Narrow-leaved NYCTANTHES.

The Indians confider this as a variety of the former fpecies; and the flowers are nearly alike. Obtuse-leaved would have been a better specifick name: the petals, indeed, are comparatively narrow, but not the leaves. This charming flower grows wild in the forests; whence it was called Vanajáti by the Bráhmens, who affifted RHEEDE; but the Játi, or Málati, belongs, I believe, to the next genus.

7. MA'LATI':

7. MA'LATI':

SYN. Sumaná, Játi.

VULG. Malti, Játi, Chambelì.

LINN. Great-flowered JASMIN.

Buds blushing; corol, moftly with purplish edges. Leaves feathered with an odd one; two or three of the terminal leaflets generally confluent.

Though Malatì and Játi are fynonymous, yet fome of the native gardeners diftinguish them; and it is the Játi only, that I have examined. COMMELINE had been informed, that the Javans give the name of Maletì to the Zambak, which in Sanferit is called Navamallicá, and which, according to RHEEDE, is used by the Hindus in their facrifices ; but they make offerings of most odoriferous flowers, and particularly of the various Jafmins and Zambaks.

8.

YUT'HICA':

SYN. Mágadhi, Ganicá, Ambafht" há, Yút'hì.

VULG. Jút bì, Jui

LINN. Azorick JASMIN.

Leaves oppofite, three'd. Branchlets cross-armed. Umbels three-flowered. Corols white, very fragrant. The yellow Yut' bìcà, fay the Hindus, is called Hémapushpicà, or golden-flowered; but I have never feen it, and it may be of a different fpecies.

9.

AMLICA':

SYN. Tintidi, Chinchá.

VULG. Tintiri; Tamru'lhindi, or Indian Date.

LINN.

Tamarindus.

The flowers of the Tamarind are fo exquifitely beautiful, the fruit fo falubrious, when an acid fherbet is required, the leaves fo elegantly

formed

formed and arranged, and the whole tree fo magnificent, that I could not refrain from giving a place in this feries to a plant already well known in all the flowers, however, that I have examined, the coalition of the stamens appeared fo invariably, that the Tamarind fhould be removed, I think, to the fixteenth class; and it were to be wifhed, that so barbarous a word as Tamarindus, corrupted from an Arabick phrase absurd in itself, fince the plant has no fort of resemblance to a date-tree, could without inconvenience be rejected, and its genuine Indian appellation admitted in its room.

10. SARA: or Arrow-cane.

SYN. Gundra, or Playful; Téjanaca, or Acute.

VULG. Ser, Serberi.

LINN. Spontaneous SACCHARUM.

CAL. Glume two-valved; valves, oblong-lanced, pointed, fubequal, girt with filky diverging hairs, exquifitely foft and delicate, more than twice as long as the flower.

COR. One-valved, acute, fringed.

STAM. Filaments three, capillary; Anthers, oblong, incumbent.
PIST. Germs very minute, ftyles two, threadform. Stigmas feathery.
FLOWERS on a very large terminal panicle, more than two feet long, in
the plant before me, and one foot across in the broadeft part; con-
fifting of numerous compound Spikes, divided into Spikelets, each on a
capillary jointed rachis, at the joints of which are the flowerets alter-
nately feffile and pedicelled. Common peduncle many-furrowed, with
reddish joints. Valvelet of the corol purple or light red; stamens and
pistils ruddy; ftigmas, purple ; pedicels, of a reddish tint; finely con-
trafted with the long filvery beard of the calyx. Leaves very long,
striated, minutely fawed; teeth upwards; keel smooth white, within;
sheathing the culm; the mouths of the sheaths thick, set with white
hairs. Gulm above twenty feet high; very smooth, round and light;

VOL. II.

I

more

more closely jointed and woody near the root, which is thick and fibrous; it grows in large clumps, like the Venu. This beautiful and fuperb grafs is highly celebrated in the Puránas, the Indian God of War, having been born in a grove of it, which burst into a flame; and the gods gave notice of his birth to the nymph of the Pleiads, who defcended and fuckled the child, thence named Cárticéya. The Cáfá, vulgarly Cafia, has a fhorter culm, leaves much narrower, longer and thicker hairs, but a smaller panicle, lefs compounded, without the purplish tints of the Sara: it is often defcribed with praife by the Hindu poets, for the whiteness of its bloffoms, which give a large plain, at fome distance, the appearance of a broad river. Both plants are extremely useful to the Indians, who harden the internodal parts of the culms, and cut them into implements for writing on their polished paper. From the munja, or culm, of the Sara was made the maunjì, or holy thread, ordained by MENU to form the facerdotal girdle, in preference even to the Cus'a-grafs.

11. DU'RVA':

SYN. S'ataparvicá, Sahafravìryà, Bhargavi, Rudrá, Anantá.
VULG. Dúb.

KOEN.

AGROSTIS Linearis.

Nothing effential can be added to the mere botanical description of this most beautiful grass; which VAN RHEEDE has exhibited in a coarse delineation of its leaves only, under the barbarous appellation of Belicaraga: its flowers, in their perfect ftate, are among the loveliest objects in the vegetable world, and appear, through a lens, like minute rubies and emeralds in conftant motion from the leaft breath of air. It is the sweetest and most nutritious pasture for cattle; and its usefulness added to its beauty induced the Hindus, in their earliest ages, to believe,

that