Grewia
(named in honour of Nehemiah Grew, M.D., famous for his work on the Anatomy of Vegetables). SYNS. Chadara, Mallococca. ORD. Tiliaceae. A genus comprising about sixty species of trees or shrubs, for the most part confined to the hotter regions of the Old World. Flowers yellow or rarely purple, axillary, few, or more numerous and panicled. Drupe fleshy or fibrous, entire, or two to four-lobed. Leaves entire or serrate, three to seven-nerved. Grewias thrive in a mixture of sandy loam and peat. Propagated by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat. The species here described are those best known to cultivation.
G. asiatica (Asiatic). fl., petals yellow, linear-oblong, half the length of the sepals; peduncles two or more. July and August. l. obliquely cordate, base five-nerved. h. 12ft. East Indies, 1792. A small tree. G. occidentalis (Western).* fl. purple; peduncles solitary, one-flowered. July to September. l. roundish-ovate, blunt-toothed, smooth. h. 10ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1690. (B. M. 422.) G. sapida (savoury). fl. yellow, 1/2in. in diameter; sepals oblong; petals entire, half the length of the sepals. l. sub-sessile, ovate or orbicular, doubly serrate, pilose above, pubescent beneath. Tropical Himalaya. A decumbent shrub.