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JOURNAL

OF THE

ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL.

I

VOL. LXXIV., PART X.-Extra Number, 1905.

Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula.-By SIR GEORGE KING, K.C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., late Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and J. SYKES GAMBLE, Esq., C.I.E., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., late of the Indian Forest Department.

No. 17.

This contribution embraces the Natural Orders Myrsinacea, Sapotacea, Ebenacea, Styracea, Oleacea, which are given under the joint names of the authors, the actual descriptions having been prepared by Sir George King for the Ebenacea and by Mr. J. S. Gamble for the rest.

The 5 Natural Orders comprise 24 genera and 221 species. There are no new genera, but the number of new species reaches 103.

Order LXX. MYRSINACEÆ.

Trees, shrubs (erect or climbing), or undershrubs, generally evergreen. Leaves usually alternate, sometimes opposite, entire dentate or crenate, often dotted with pellucid round or linear resinous glands. Stipules none. Flowers regular, usually small, white or reddish; hermaphrodite or occasionally polygamo-diœcious; generally in panicles, racemes or umbels. Calyx inferior (in Masa adnate to the ovary), 4-6-lobed, the lobes valvate or imbricate, sometimes enlarged in fruit, persistent, often marked with glandular dots or lines. Corolla 4-5-lobed; the tube usually very short, sometimes wanting; lobes twisted to the left in the bud, usually overlapping to the right, rarely

valvate, often gland-dotted or -striate. Stamens opposite to the corollalobes and equal to them in number, free or adnate to the lobes or in an inner ring, generally erect; filaments long or short; anthers opening by slits, usually introrsely, sometimes septate as in Egiceras and Ardisia littoralis, sometimes with terminal openings as well, free or adherent by their edges; the connective often thickened and produced, sometimes glandular; staminodes sometimes present, though not in Malay species. Ovary globose, ovoid or oblong, free (in Masa adherent to the calyx-tube), 1-celled, narrowed into or surmounted by the style; style filiform or columnar, stigma usually simple; ovules few or many, inserted on or immersed in a free usually globose central placenta. Fruit usually small, globose (in Ægiceras linear, curved, acuminate); epicarp fleshy, mesocarp crustaceous, endocarp membranous, separable; usually one- rarely several-seeded (as in Masa), indehiscent. Seeds usually globose, hollowed at the base: in Masa many and angled; albumen pitted or ruminate; embryo transverse, cylindric; radicle usually elongate.-DISTRIB. Tropical or sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres, chiefly in Asia and South America; genera 32, species upwards of 900 (according to Mez Monog. Myrsineæ).

Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; fruit many-seeded (Tribe I.
MESEE)

Trees or shrubs; calyx 2-bracteolate; flowers in simple or com-
pound racemes

Calyx-tube free from the ovary; fruit one-seeded (Tribe II.
EUMYRSINEE)-
:-

Fruit round; anther-cells usually opening by slits, rarely sep-
tate:-

Corolla-lobes imbricate in bud :

1. MESA.

Flowers in axillary or lateral fascicles; trees or shrubs
Flowers in racemes or panicles; climbing plants, rarely
shrubs

2. MYRSINE.

3. EMBELIA.

Corolla-lobes valvate in bud; flowers in paniculate spike-like
racemes; small shrubs with parallel-veined leaves
Corolla-lobes contorted in bud :—

4. LABISIA.

Anthers sagittate, rarely septate; corolla-lobes overlapping
to the right

5. ARDISIA.

6. ANTISTROPHE.

Anthers sagittate-lanceolate, the connective produced in a membranous wing; corolla-lobes overlapping to the left Fruit elongate, cylindric, long-pointed; anthers markedly septate 7. ÆGICERAS.

1. MÆSA, Forsk.

Trees or shrubs, erect or straggling. Leaves entire, dentate or serrate, usually pellucid-punctate, sometimes with resinous lines. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, in terminal or axillary racemes, the pedicels bracteate. Calyx bibracteolate, 4-5-lobed; lobes persistent,

imbricate; the tube adnate to the ovary, sometimes with resinous lines. Corolla shortly campanulate, 4-5-lobed; the lobes usually as long as the tube or rather shorter, rounded with inflexed tips, sometimes resinous-lineate. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted on the corolla-tube; filaments short; anthers introrse, oblong-cordate. Ovary adnate to the calyx-tube; style short; stigma small, entire or shortly 3-5-lobed; ovules numerous, placenta globose. Fruit small, dry or fleshy, ovoid or subturbinate, crowned with the persistent style, many-seeded. Seeds numerous, angular, immersed in hollows of the placenta, and arranged around it with hexagonal surfaces, embryo small, oblique or transverse, cotyledons narrowly ovate.-DISTRIB. Species over 100 (according to Mez), chiefly in the tropical regions of the Old World, a few in Australia and the Pacific Islands; all the Malayan species belonging to sub-genus Eumasa, Mez.

Leaves entire :

Flowers in large terminal leafy panicles; branches of the inflorescence pubescent

Flowers in large axillary or pseudo-terminal panicles of racemes; branches of inflorescence glabrous Leaves faintly lobed :

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Leaves very slightly dentate, almost coriaceous, under 3.5 in.
long, midrib and main-nerves very prominent; inflorescence
as long as or only a little shorter than leaves
Leaves membranous, over 4 in. long:-

Leaves pale when dry, under 3 in. broad, distantly den-
tate, inflorescence longer than the petiole

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Leaves dull green when dry, over 4 in. broad, inflorescence scarcely longer than the petiole

Leaves prominently dentate

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1. M. macrothyrsa.

2. M. ramentacea.

3. M. impressinervis.

4. M. striata.

5. M. pahangiana. 6. M. indica.

1. MESA MACROTHYRSA, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. Suppl. 573 (1862). A slender climbing shrub reaching 30 to 50 feet in length; branches brown, somewhat angled and flexuose, striate. Leaves entire, chartaceous; elliptic, shortly bluntly acuminate at apex, rounded at base; smooth and dull on both surfaces; 3 to 4 in. long, 1.5 to 2 in. broad; midrib prominent, impressed above; main-nerves 5 to 7 pairs, distant, starting from the midrib at about 60° and curving upwards; secondary nerves and reticulations indistinct; petiole 5 to 7 in. long, channelled above by the decurrent margins of the blade. Inflorescence a large leafy terminal many-flowered tripinnate panicle, the branches rusty pubescent; pedicels about 025 in. long, supported by a slightly shorter ovate-acute bract, and bearing 2 similar bracteoles below the flowers. Calyx superior, cupular; lobes 4, occasionally 5, rounded, denticulate, '04 in. long, gland-dotted; tube very short. Corolla dull white or pink, longer than calyx; tube as long as lobes; lobes 4 or 5, rounded, often with

small lobules between, denticulate, with about 3 to 4 glandular lineoles. Stamens inserted near the base of the corolla-tube; anthers globose; filaments about twice as long as anthers. Ovary rounded, depressed, crowned with a short cylindric style and obtusely 3-4-lobed stigma. Fruit very small, 05 in. in diam., globose, glabrous, faintly striate, crowned about one-third of the way down with the persistent calyxteeth. Seeds very minute, angled. Scheff. Myrs. 29; Mez Monog. Myrs. 49. M. floribunda, Scheff. Myrs. 18. M. Korthalsiana, Scheff. Myrs. 18 (?)

PERAK: Wray 2684; Scortechini 122, 1655; King's Collector 725, 2722, 3777, 4968, 5326.-DISTRIB. Sumatra, Korthals, Beccari 887; Borneo, de Vriese, Teysmann.

We have always found the flowers tetramerous, as described by Miquel and Scheffer. Mez describes them as either 4 or 5-merous. This is a well-marked species on account of its large terminal inflorescence, whose pubescent branches easily distinguish it from those occasional forms of M. ramentacea which have part of the inflorescence pseudo-terminal.

2. MESA RAMENTACEA, Wall. in Roxb. Fl. Ind. ed. Carey & Wall. II. 231 (1824). A large shrub or small tree, usually branched from the base and sending out many straggling or climbing branches often 30 to 40 feet long or more; branchlets smooth, somewhat striate when dry. Leaves entire, chartaceous; ovate-lanceolate or elliptic, acuminate at apex, rounded or cordate at base; 3 to 8 in. long, 1·5 to 4 in. broad; smooth on both surfaces and generally shining above; midrib prominent, often impressed above; main-nerves slender, distant, 5 to 10 pairs, starting at 45° with the midrib and curved upwards; secondary nerves and reticulations not apparent: petiole ·3 to 5 in. long, slightly winged by the decurrent margins of the blade, which are often connivent above. Inflorescence axillary or sometimes pseudo-terminal, glabrous, many-flowered, consisting of more or less closely packed racemes arranged in bipinnate panicles, shorter or longer than the leaves; pedicels 1 to 15 in. long, slender, supported by a minute lanceolate bract and with 2 very minute ovate-lanceolate bracteoles below the flower; buds minute, globose, depressed at top. Calyx superior, cupular; tube very short, about ·025 in. long; lobes 5, ovate, faintly ciliate, as long as the tube. Corolla 075 in. long; lobes half the length, ovate or ovatereniform, edges undulate, with a few brown glandular lineoles. Stamens short, longer in ? flowers, inserted a little below the top of the tube; anthers rounded, filaments as long as the anthers, dorsifixed. Ovary in flowers adnate to the base of the calyx-tube, style short, stigma. minutely 4-lobed, ovules many. Fruit globose, 1 to 15 in. long, crowned with the persistent teeth of the calyx; seeds minute, angled,

albuminous, embryo small, transverse. A. DC. in Trans. Linn. Soc. XVII. 133, Prod. VIII. 77; Scheff. Myrs. 15; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. II. 1006; Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XLVI. ii. 220; For. Fl. II. 99; Clarke in Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. III. 508; Koord. & Val. Bijdr. V. 218; Mez Monog. Myrs. 27; Prain Beng. Pl. 642. M. ovata, A. DC. 1.c. 133, t. 4, Prod. l.c. 77; Scheff. Myrs. 14. M. lanceolata, Don Prod. 148. M. acuminata, missionis, and glabra, DC. Prod. l.c. 77, 78, 82. M. sumatrana, Scheff. Myrs. 15. Bæobotrys ramentacea, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 16, Fl. Ind. I. 558; Wall. Cat. 2322. B. ovata, Wall. Cat. 2324. B. glabra, Roxb. Fl. Ind. I. 560. B. fragrans, Wall. Cat. 2323. B. (?) missionis, Wall. Cat. 6523.

KEDAH: Langkawi, Curtis 2554, 3409. PENANG: Wallich 2324; Maingay (K.D.) 1001; J. Scott; G. King; Phillips; Deschamps. PERAK: Scortechini 382A, 606в, 628; Wray 1286, 1291, 1912, 2363, 2787; King's Collector 171, 1222, 1909, 2788, 3883, 4144, 4281, 4497, 4915, 5088, 5113; Curtis. PAHANG: Ridley 2175. SELANGOR: Ridley; Goodenough 10554. NEGRI SEMBILAN Ridley 10067. MALACCA: Griffith (K.D.) 3552; Cuming 2286; Miller 9; Hervey; Goodenough 1036, 1742; Derry 37, 1063; Ridley 10099. JOHORE: Lake & Kelsall 4035; G. King. SINGAPORE: Schomburgk 91; Lobb 324; T. Anderson 126; Ridley 2064, 2805: Goodenough 1644; Hullett 38, 56, 885, 887.— DISTRIB. Eastern Bengal and Burma, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sumatra, Java, Borneo.

We follow Mez in not keeping up the VAR. ovata. The large mass of material available shows clearly that in shape of leaf and in inflorescence the variation is regular, and that the form with cordate long-acuminate leaves passes gradually into that with ovate broad short-acuminate leaves, and that similarly the inflorescence changes. A monstrous form with moss-like inflorescence similar to those often seen in India on M. Chisia and other species, is not uncommon.

3. MESA IMPRESSINERVIS, King & Gamble, n. sp. A bush or small tree; branches half as thick as a goosequill, glabrous, pale brown, and prominently longitudinally wrinkled when dry. Leaves thinly coriaceous; elliptic, shortly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base; entire or very faintly dentate only near the apex, margins recurved when dry, reticulate and shining above, dull and paler beneath; 3 to 3.5 in. long, 1-25 to 1.75 in. broad; midrib prominent, impressed above; main-nerves 7 or 8 pairs, also prominently impressed above and prominently raised on the lower surface, arching upwards to meet near the margin; secondary nerves few, inconspicuous as are the reticulations; petiole ·2 to 25 in. long, bordered by the decurrent edges of the blade, which are almost connivent above. Inflorescence an axillary raceme, simple or with one short branch near the base, 1·5 to 2.5 in. long, and so shorter

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