NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 37
In regard to the affinities of the order, Meisner has well remarked "ordo valde adhuc
inserte sedis." Brown, adverting, I presume, for I have not his paper to ascertain, to the
fact that some of the species of Pittosporum had been referred to Celastrus, remarked, when
indicating the order, that it is widely different from Celastrinee and Rhamneæ, but did not
mention its affinities. De Candolle, in adopting the family, placed it beside Polygalece which it
certainly approaches through Xanthophyllum. Ach. Richard thinks it alied to Rutacea by
a crowd of characters. Lindley adopts this view in the first edition of his Natural System, but
groups it Ampelideae and Olacineae in his second, two orders, by the way, not very closely allied
to each other. Arnott, in our Prodromus, placed it next Celastrineae, an arrangement which
has been adopted by both Meisner and Endlicher. This, I dare say, is as correct a view as
any of the preceding, but still the relationship seems far from being near. In their flowers,
Pittosporeae, judging from Pittosporum alone, seem to approach Rutaceae, while their 2-celled
ovaries erect ovules and very minute embryo at the base of a copious dense horny albumen,
more nearly associcate them with Vitis: with Olax it appears to me, the relationship is
remote.
In regard to the properties of the order little seems to be known. One yields finely veined timber, and the fruit of another is eatable. The seed of all the Pittosporums I know, are enveloped in a viscid resinous secretion exhaling a strong turpentine odour, which is also given out by the leaves when bruised.
PITTOSPORUM.
Sepals 5. Petals 5, the claws approaching each other, and forming a tube, Capsule 2-3-valved, I- celled, the valves bearing the placentae along their middle or at their base. Seeds covered with a resinous, pulp.-Shrubs with persistent entire leaves.-W. and A. Prod. p. 153.
This genus, as already stated, has, within the last 20 years, been vastly extended. In 1824, D.C. gave characters of 11 species; in 1844, Walpers compiled a supplementary list of 41, which had been published in the interval, and, beyond doubt, there are still many unpublished species remaining to be added. One, if not two, I have in my Hill collections, but not yet determined. Both the Ceylon ones will, I suspect, also prove distinct from the Indian ones when opportunities occur for their comparison. The one here figured is com- mon in the clumps of jungle about Ootacamund, flowering abundantly in February and March. The fruit re- quire several months to attain maturity.
PITTOSPORUM TETRASPERMUM (W. & A,:) leaves elliptic-oblong, acute, coriaceous, glabrous, margins slightly waved and recurved: flowers in a terminal sessile umbel; peduncles aggregated, usually 1-, rarely 2-flowered, pubescent: sepals pubescent, lanceolate, acuminated, minute, many times shorter than the co- rolla: petals linear: ovary hairy style glabrous: stigmas 2-lobed: ovules 2 in each cell: capsule nearly globose, scarcely compressed, 4-seeded; valves thick-coriaceous.-W. and A. Prod. p. 154.
Ootacamund in clumps of jungle: a large shrub flowering in February and March. The figure differs in two points from the character which was taken from dry specimens. The stigma is 4, not 2-lobed, and the capsules are somewhat compressed. The lobes of the stigma are at best so minute that a mistake might easily have happened, and the capsules are at first perfectly globose but become flattened when quite mature. The dark streak on the longitudinal section of the seed does not represent the embryo which the draftsman has failed to detect, being very minute and situated at the base of the seed. P. Neilgherrense is also found in the jungles about Ootacamund and Pycarrah; a third undescribed species is found at Sisparab, all of which are in flower at the same time
