imagination of a BURMAN to difcover in them a refemblance to the face of a man, or of an ape, the genus will, I hope, be called BACULA, by which name it is frequently celebrated in the Puránas, and even placed among the flowers of the Hindu paradife. Leaves alternate, petioled, egg-oblong pointed, fmooth. The tree is very ornamental in parks and pleasure-grounds.

37. As'o'CA:

SYN. Vanjula.

CAL. Perianth two-leaved, closely embracing the tube.

COR. One-petaled. Tube long; cylindrick, fubincurved; mouth encircled with a nectareous rim. Border four-parted, divisions, roundish. STAM. Filaments eight, long, coloured, inserted on the rim of the tube. Anthers kidney-shaped.

PIST. Germ, above, oblong, flat. Style fhort, downy.. Stigma bent, fimple.

PER. Legume long, compreffed at first, then protuberant with the fwelling feeds; incurved, strongly veined and margined, fharppointed.

SEEDS from two to eight, folid, large, many-shaped, fome oblongroundish, some rhomboidal, fome rather kidney-shaped, mostly thick, fome flat.

Leaves egg-oblong-lanced, oppofite, moftly five-paired, nerved; long from four or five to twelve or thirteen inches.

The number of stamens varies confiderably in the fame plant: they are from fix or seven to eight or nine; but the regular number seems eight, one in the inteftices of the corol, and one before the centre of each divifion. Most of the flowers, indeed, have one abortive stamen, and fome only mark its place, but many are perfect; and VAN RHEEDE tpeaks of eight as the conftant number: in fact no part of the plant is

conftant.

conftant. Flowers fafcicled, fragrant juft after funfet and before funrife, when they are fresh with evening and morning dew; beautifully diverfified with tints of orange-scarlet, of pale yellow, and of bright orange, which grows deeper every day, and forms a variety of shades according to the age of each bloffom, that opens in the fascicle. The vegetable world fcarce exhibits a richer fight than an Asóca-tree in full bloom it is about as high as an ordinary Cherry-tree. A Bráhmen informs me, that one fpecies of the Asóca is a creeper; and JAYADE'VA gives it the epithet voluble: the Sanfcrit name will, I hope, be retained by botanists, as it perpetually occurs in the old Indian poems and in treatises on religious rites.

38. S'AIVA'LA:

SYN. Janalili. S'aivala.

VULG. Simár, Syálá, Pátafyála, Séhálá.

LINN. Vallifneria? R.

Proper

CAL. Common Spathe one-leaved, many-flowered, very long, furrowed, two-cleft at the top; each divifion end-nicked. Perianth three-parted; divifions, awled.

COR. Petals three, linear, long, expanding, fleshy.

STAM. Filaments invariably nine, thread-form. Anthers erect, oblong, furrowed.

PIST. Germ egged, uneven. Styles always three, short, awled, expanding. Stigmas three, fimple.

PER. Capfule very long, fmooth, awled, one-celled, infolded in an angled Spathe.

SEEDS very numerous, murexed, in a vifcid mucus.

Flowrets from fix to fourteen, fmall. Scape compreffed, very narrow, fleshy, furrowed in the middle.

Pedicel of the floweret, thread-form, crimson above; proper perianth, ruffet; petals, white; anthers, deep yellow. Leaves fwordform,

pointed,

pointed, very narrow, smooth, and soft, about two feet long, crowded, white at the base. Root small, fibrous. It flourishes in the ponds at Crishna-nagar: the refiners of sugar, use it in this province. If this plant be a Vallifneria, I have been fo unfortunate as never to have seen a female plant, nor fewer than nine stamens in one bloffom out of more than a hundred, which I carefully examined.

39. PU'TICARAJA:

SYN. Pracírya, Pútica, Calimáraca.

VULG. Nátácaranja.

LINN. GUILANDINA Bonduccella.

The species of this genus vary in a fingular manner on several plants, with the oblong leaflets and double prickles of the Bonduccella, I could fee only male flowers, as RHEEDE has described them; they were yellow, with an aromatick fragrance. Others, with fimilar leaves and prickles, were clearly polygamous, and the flowers had the following character:

MALE.

CAL. Perianth one-leaved, falver-form, downy; Border five-parted, with equal, oblong divifions.

COR. Petals five, wedge-form, obtufely notched at the top; four equal, erect, the fifth, depreffed.

STAM. Filaments ten, awled, inferted in the calyx, villous, very unequal in length. Anthers oblong, furrowed, incumbent.

HERMAPHRODITE.

Calyx, Corol, and Stamens, as before.

PIST. Germ oblong, villous. Style cylindrick, longer than the fila

ments. Stigma fimple.

PER. and SEEDS well defcribed by LINNÆUS.

Flowers

Flowers yellow; the depreffed petal variegated with red fpecks. Bracts three-fold, roundish, pointed. Spikes, fet with floral leaflets, lanced, four-fold, reflected.

40. SOBHA'N JANA: SOBHA'NJANA:

SYN. Sigru, Ticfhna, Gandhaca, A'cfhiva, Méchaca.

VULG. Sajjana, Moranga.

LINN. Guilandina Moringa.

CAL. Perianth one-leaved.

Tube fhort, unequal, gibbous. Border

five-parted. Divifions oblong-lanced, fubequal; first deflected, then revolute; coloured below, white above.

COR. Petals five, inferted into the calyx, resembling a boat-form flower. Wing-like, two, inverse-egged, clawed, expanding.

Awning-like, two, inverfe-egged, erect; claws, shorter.

Keel-like, one, oblong, concave; enclosing the fructification; beyond it, fpatuled; longer than the wing-petals.

STAM. Filaments five, fertile; three, bent over the piftil: two shorter, inserted into the claws of the middle petals. Anthers twin, rather mooned, obtuse, incumbent. Five sterile (often four only) alternate with the fertile, fhorter; their bafes villous.

PIST.

Germ oblong, coloured, villous; below it a nectar-bearing gland. Style, shorter than the stamen, rather downy, curved, thicker above. Stigma, fimple.

PER. Legume very long, flender, wreathed, pointed, three-sided, channeled, prominent with feeds, one-celled.

SEEDS many, winged, three-fided.

TREE very high; branches in an extreme degree light and beautiful, rich with clustering flowers. Stem exuding a red gum. Leaves moftly thrice-feathered with an odd one; leaflets some inverse egged, some ged, fome oval, minutely end-nicked. Raceme-panicles moftly axillary. In perfect flowers the whole calyx is quite deflected, counterfeiting

eg

five

five petals; whence VAN RHEEDE made it a part of the corol. Corols delicately odorous; milk-white, but the two central erect petals, beautifully tinged with pink. The root answers all the purposes of our horse-radish, both for the table and for medicine: the fruit and bloffoms are dreffed in caris. In hundreds of its flowers, examined by me with attention, five ftamens and a pistil were invariably perfect: indeed, it is poffible, that they may be only the female hermaphrodites, and that the males have ten perfect ftamens with pistils abortive; but no such flowers have been discovered by me after a moft diligent fearch.

There is another fpecies or variety, called MEDHU SI'GRU, that is Honey-Sigru; a word intended to be expreffed on VAN RHEEDE'S plate in Nagari letters: its vulgar name is Muna, or Racta fajjana, because its flowers or wood are of a redder hue.

LINNÆUS refers to Mrs. BLACKWELL, who reprefents this plant, by the name of Balanus Myrepfica, as the celebrated Ben, properly Bán of the Arabian physicians and poets.

41. CO'VIDA'RA:

SYN. Cánchanára, Chamarica, Cuddála, Yugapatra.

VULG. Cachnár, Racta cánchan.

LINN. Variegated BAUHINIA.

CAL. Perianth one-leaved, obfcurely five-cleft, deciduous.

COR. Petals five, egged, clawed, expanded, wavy; one more diftant, more beautiful, ftriated.

STAM. Filaments ten, unequally connected at the bafe; five, shorter. Anthers, double, incumbent.

PIST. Germ above, oblong. Style incurved. Stigma fimple, afcend

ing.

PER.