Abstract
THE present part of Mr. Gamble's Madras flora is on the same lines as previously issued parts. The family Ebenaceae is completed, with an enumeration of the 24 species of Diospyros, several of which are large trees yielding a black heartwood, or ebony; and the treatment of the families of gamopetalous dicotyledons follows in the sequence usually adopted in the British Colonial floras. The principal families are Apocyn-aceae, Asclepiadaceag, and Convolvulacese, and the part concludes about half-way through Scrophulariacese. Solanaceae is poorly represented, but in this family, as in Apocynaceas, several South American genera, introduced in cultivation, have run wild. Mr. Gamble enumerates eight species of Strychnos, including Nux vomica, the source of strychnine, and another species, the seeds of which yield the alkaloid brucine; a third species, S. potatorum, derives its name from the fact that the seeds are used to clear muddy water. Of the Convolvulaceae, the genera Argyreia and Ipomcea supply many showy-flowered climbers; I. Batatas, sweet potato, is in common cultivation as a vegetable.
Flora of the Presidency of Madras.
J. S.
Gamble
By. Part 5: Ebenaceæ to Scrophulariaceæ. (Published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council.) Pp. 769–962. (London: Adlard and Son and West Newman, Ltd., 1923.) 10s. net.
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Flora of the Presidency of Madras. Nature 111, 631 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111631b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111631b0