Amherstia

[Called after Lady Amherst, wife of Lord Amherst, Governor-general of India from 1823 to 1828.] A genus of plants belonging to the order Fabaceæ, and the suborder Cæsalpiniese. The only known species is the A. nobilis, one of the most splendid trees existing. The flowers are large, scentle , and of a bright vermilion colour, diversified with three yellow spots, and disposed in gigantic ovate pendulous branches. The leaves are equally pinnate, large, and, when young, of a pale purple colour. It grows near Martaban, in the Eastern peninsula. The Burmese call it thoca, and offer handfuls of the flowers before the images of Booddha.