Saurauja
(from Sauraujo, the name of a Portuguese botanist known to Willdenow). SYNS. Blumia, Marumia, Palava (of Ruiz and Pavon), Reinwardtia (of Blume). ORD. Ternstromiaceae. A genus comprising about sixty species of mostly stove trees or shrubs, usually strigose-pilose or hairy, inhabiting Asia or tropical and sub-tropical America. Flowers usually hermaphrodite; sepals five, closely imbricated; petals five, imbricated, connate or rarely nearly free at base; stamens numerous, adhering to the base of the corolla; peduncles axillary or lateral, many-flowered, sub-paniculate, or rarely shortened and few-flowered. Leaves usually serrated. The under-mentioned species merit culture on account of their fine flowers and leaves. All are stove shrubs, thriving in a compost of loam and peat. Propagated by ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
S. excelsa (tall). fl. white; peduncles long, covered with brown hairs, trichotomously panicled at the apex. June l. oblong-obovate, rather acute, quite entire, scabrous above, hairy beneath at the veins. h. 10ft. Caraccas, 1820.
S. nepaulensis (Nepaul). fl. white; racemes many-flowered, panicled, on long peduncles. August, l. lanceolate, 9in. long, 2in. to 3in. wide, acuminate, serrate, smooth above, beneath (as well as the branchlets) covered with brown down. h. 6ft. Nepaul, 1824.
S. spectabilis (remarkable). fl. white, in ample, much-branched panicles; petals obcordate, twice exceeding the calyx. June. l. obovate-lanceolate, shortly acuminate, connate at base, petiolate, doubly serrate, naked in the axils of the veins. Branches, peduncles, calyces, and nerves of leaves, adpressedly ferruginous-bristly. h. 10ft. Brazil, 1842. (B. M. 3982.)