SYN. Navamallicá, Navamálicá. VULG. Béla, Muta-béla. BURM. Many-flowered Nyctanthes. See 5 RUMPH. tab. 30. 6 H. M. tab. 50. The blossoms of this variety are extremely fragrant. Zambak (so the word should be written) is a flower to which Perfian and Arabian poets frequently allude. LINN. Wavy-leaved NYCTANTHES. Berry globular, fimple, one-celled, SEED large, fingle, globular. According to RHEEDE, the Bráhmens in the weft of India diftinguish this flower by the word Caftúri, or musk, on account of its very The Indians confider this as a variety of the former fpecies; and the flowers are nearly alike. Obtufe-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 forefts; 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. Máltì, fáti, Chambélì. 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 Málatì and Játi are fynonymous, yet some 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 Máletì to the Zambak, which in Sanfcrit is called Navamallicá, and which, according to RHEEDE, is ufed by the Hindus in their facrifices; but they make offerings of most odoriferous flowers, and particularly of the various Jafmins and Zambaks. 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 seen it, and it may be of a different species. The flowers of the Tamarind are fo exquifitely beautiful, the fruit fo falubrious, when an acid sherbet is required, the leaves fo elegantly formed formed and arranged, and the whole tree so 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 wished, that so barbarous a word as Tamarindus, corrupted from an Arabick phrase absurd in itself, since 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 soft 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, styles 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 broadest part; confifting of numerous compound Spikes, divided into spikelets, each on a capillary jointed rachis, at the joints of which are the flowerets alternately 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 contrafted with the long filvery beard of the calyx. Leaves very long, ftriated, minutely fawed; teeth upwards; keel smooth white, within; sheathing the culm; the mouths of the fheaths thick, fet with white hairs. Culm 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 fmaller panicle, lefs compounded, without the purplish tints of the Sara: it is often described with praise by the Hindu poets, for the whiteness of its bloffoms, which give a large plain, at some 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, Bhargaví, Rudrá, Anantá. 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 state, 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 pafture for cattle; and its usefulness added to its beauty induced the Hindus, in their earliest ages, to believe, that |