Curtis''''s Botanical Magazine 91

— CTJRTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, COMPRISING THE IJIants of tht l\o)mi &arfcen* of l\t\x>, AND OP OTHER BOTANICAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN WITH SUITABLE DESCRIPTIONS; DALTON HOOKER, SIR JOSEPH FE.S, D C.L OXON., LL.D CANTAB F.L.S , M.D., C.B, K.C.S.I., etc., CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE , VOL XL & OF THE THIRD SERIES (Or Vol CX of the Whole Work.) " There sprang the violet all new, And fresh pervinke rich of hew, And flowres yellow, white and rede Such plenty grew there never in medo." Chaccicr LONDON: L REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVBNT GARDEN 1884 [All rights Mo Bot rescrve>5.~\ ( 1897 PBINTED BY OriBEHT AND BIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST JOHN'S SQtTABE TO JOHN BALL, ESQ., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.8., &c, &c My dear Ball, As one who has turists laid both Botanists and Horticul- under lasting obligations by your travels and your writings, and especially by your published works on the vegetation of the Alps and of the Atlas, I hope you will accept the dedication of a volume of the Botanical Magazine Allow me at the same time my to record grateful sense of the interest you have always shown in the establishment of Kew, and of that personal friendship break during many years of active and many months of foreign Believe me, which has known no scientific travel my dear Ball, Most sincerely yours, JOS D Royal Gardens, Kew, December 1st, 1884 intercourse, HOOKER FIS731 T M.3.de:,Jl> Piidi,hth Vincent Brooks L'Reeve k C°- London Eay&bon Itttj ; Tab 6731, DECAISNEA insignis Native of the Eastern Himalaya Nat Ord Bebbeiudi^e Genus Decaisnea, Hook.f Decaisnea purum insignis et — Tribe Lardizabaleje Tkoms.; [Benth et HooJc.f Gen PI vol i p 42.) frutex erectus glaberriraus polygamo-dioiciua, caulibus strictis divisis rarais apices versus i'oiiosis, ioiiis eiongatis impari-pinnatis petiolo terete graoili, foholis petiololatis ovatis v elliptioo-1 moeolatia acuminata* ; integerrimis subtus glaueis, raoemis eloogatia patentibas, Horibaa pendalii viridibus, sepalis (! laneeolatis acuminatis, pctalis l>, il stamiuibus (5 filamentis in columnam elongatana oonaatis, aatheria adnatia connective) in proceasum rostratom ereotam producto, fl £ carpeiiia basi itaminibaa imperfect is liberie stipatis, fruotus oarpellia cjlindraoeis pateuti-recurvis rugosis earnosis polyspermis g D insignis, Hook, f llooh.f p 213 Thorns, in Proc Linn Soc 1854, et in Fl Ind vol III Him PI t 10, et in Fl Brit Jnd vol i p 107 et ; Sbackia t insignis, Griff Itin Notes, 187 i (n 977) The subject of the present plate is one of the most remarkable of Indian botanical discoveries, both in structure and appearance, and is further notable as yielding an edible fruit With the habit of an Araliaceous plant, it exhibits the characters of the tribes Berber em and Lardizabalece, whilst differing from both in several important points That its nearest affinity is with Lardizabalece is shown by its unisexual flowers, monadelphous stamens with anthers opening by longitudinal slits, its three carpels and many seeds ; whilst it differs from all others of the tribe in its erect habit, racemose inflorescence, pinnate leaves, and from most of them in the placentation being sutural Amongst Berberew the habit recalls the Mahonia section of Berberis, with this difference, that the wood of Decaisnea is singularly soft and brittle, and the leaves herbaceous and deciduous, both petiole and leaflets being jointed at the base Decaisnea is a native of the humid forests of Sikkim and Bhotan, at elevations of 7000 to 9000 feet above the sea it was discovered in 1838 in the former country by Griffith, JANUAKY 1ST, 1884 name the it for proposed Notes Itinerary who in his name, This microscopist eminent an after of Slackia, (his Decaisnea for publish himself not did Griffith however, and edited), posthumously having been Notes" "Itinerary in 1845 he gave the same name to a genus of Palms, which " Calcutta Journal of Natural History" in the published he (vol v p 468), and which was further described and figured The Palm in his posthumous " Palms of British India." MS genus Slaclaa has, however, been lately determined by me to be identical with Iquanura of Blume, and the question is, whether Slaclaa should not now be reverted to for not himself Griffith because lectisnea I think not (1) only never published it, but abandoned it for that plant and gave it to another (2) because if he had lived and published his Itinerary Notes, he would assuredly have expunged the name Slaclaa therefrom; and (3) because his whole description, " Frutex caulibus simplicibus robustis foliis pinnatis subtus glaucis carnosis, racemis pendulis, floribus e viridi luteis, perianth, acuminatiss.," is wholly insufficient to establish a genus upon, or without the aid of the number Conreferring to his herbarium, to identify the plant by sidering; further that the name Decaisnea is that of a the botanist w hose essay on the tribe to which it belongs Ltirdizabalece is a classical work, I have no hesitation in retaining it, and shall look out for another Indian genus whereby to commemorate Mr Slack's services to microscopy The figure here given is taken from a plant five feet high, growing in the Temperate House at Kew, raised by Mr Max Leichtlin, of Baden (who presented the young plant to Kew), from seed sent by Mr Gammie from Sikkim It flowered in May of the present year for the first time, and proved to be a male plant Desok Trunk or trunks, for sometimes several spring from the ground from a common root, six to ten feet high, as thick as the arm, very brittle ; bark pale, covered with lenticels, pith very large ; branches few, subterminal, erect Leaves terminal on the branches, two to three feet long, horizontal; petiole slender, terete, jointed on the stem; ; ; — T — leaflets many pairs, four to six inches long, petiolulate, ovate or elliptic acuminate, green above, glaucous beneath, thin (not fleshy as described by Griffith) Racemes terminal and axillary, a foot long, horizontal, many-flowered Flowers drooping, green, one inch long, on slender pedicels as long — as themselves; ; bracts subulate, minute Perianth cam- panulate ; segments lanceolate, acuminate Male flower stamens six, filaments united into a cylindric column bearing the adnate two-celled anthers at the tip; anther-cells oblong, disconnected, bursting by dorsal slits, connective produced into a long erect subulate horn Female flower carpels three, erect, linear, cylindric, with discoid sessile stigmas, surrounded at the base by six subsessile abortive free anthers; ovules many, two-seriate on the ventral suture Ripe carpels three, three to four inches long by one to one and a half in diameter, cylindric, spreading and recurved, golden yellow, fleshy, full of white sweet pulp pericarp fleshy, with yellow juice, coarsely granulate externally Seeds numerous, two-seriate, suborbicular or oblong, flattened, one-half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter ; testa hard, brown, shining ; embryo minute, in horny albumen J D H : : Fig 1, Whole reduced; 2, flowering (