83 conftant. Flowers fafcicled, fragrant just after sunset 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 fafcicle. The vegetable world scarce 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 Sanferit 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. Janalilì. S'aivala.

VULG. Simár, Syálá, Pátafyála, Séhálá.

LINN. Vallifneria? R.

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.

Proper

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

PIST. Germ egged, uneven. Styles always three, fhort, 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 compressed, 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 foft, about two feet long, crowded, white at the base. Root small, fibrous. It flourishes in the ponds at Crishna-nagar: the refiners of fugar, use it in this province. If this plant be a Vallisneria, 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. Pracirya, Pútica, Calimáraca.

VULG. Nátácaranja.

LINN. GUILANDINA Bonduccella.

The fpecies 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 defcribed 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 divisions.

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 filaments. Stigma fimple.

PER. and SEEDS well described by LINNEUS.

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:

SYN. Sigru, Ticfhna, Gandhaca, A'cfbiva, Michaca.

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, refembling a boat-form flower. Wing-like, two, inverfe-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, inferted 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 mostly thrice-feathered with an odd one; leaflets some inverse egged, fome egged, some oval, minutely end-nicked. Raceme-panicles mostly axillary. In perfect flowers the whole calyx is quite deflected, counterfeiting

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 piftil were invariably perfect: indeed, it is poffible, that they may be only the female hermaphrodites, and that the males have ten perfect stamens with piftils abortive; but no fuch flowers have been discovered by me after a most 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.

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 base; five, shorter. Anthers, double, incumbent.

PIST. Germ above, oblong. Style incurved. Stigma simple, ascend

ing.

PER.

PER. Legume flattish, long, pointed, moftly five-celled.

SEEDS moftly five; compreffed, wrinkled, roundish.

LEAVES rather hearted, two-lobed; fome with rounded, fome with pointed, lobes. Flowers chiefly purplish and rofe-coloured, fragrant; the sweet and beautiful buds are eaten by the natives in their favory meffes. We have feen many fpecies and varieties of this charming plant one had racemed flowers, with petals equal, expanding, lanced, exquifitely white, with a rofe-coloured stripe from the base of each to its centre; anthers, four only, fertile; fix, much shorter, sterile; a second had three fertile, and feven very short, barren; another had light purple corols, with no more than five filaments, three longer, coloured, curved in a line of beauty. A noble Climbing BAUHINIA was lately fent from Népál; with flowers racemed, cream-coloured; ftyle, pink; germ, villous ; ftamens three filaments, with rudiments of two more; ftem, downy, four-furrowed, often fpirally. Tendrils oppofite, below the leaves. Leaves two-lobed,

extremely large: it is a ftout climber up the highest ARUNDO Vénu. The Sanferit name Mandára is erroneously applied to this plant in the first volume of VAN RHEEDE.

42. CAPITT'HA:

SYN.

Grábin, Dadhitt'ha, Manmatha, Dadhip' hala, Pushpap'hala, Dantas' at'ha.

CAL. Perianth five-parted, minute, deciduous; divifions expanded,

acute.

COR. Petals five, equal, oblong, reflected.

STAM. Filaments ten, very fhort, with a small gland between each pair, awled, furrowed. Anthers, thick, five times as long as the filaments; furrowed, coloured, erect-expanding.