*70 MR, G. UESTHAM's BOTANICAL MEMORANDA. 



to be specific, but of which his specimens are insufficient for 

 description. It is, indeed, scarcely possible to give positive diagno- 

 stic characters of any Ventilago without the assistance of the fruit, 

 and I should have been unable to identify such of Tulasne's Indian 

 ones as he had not seen in fruit, had not the rich materials in the 

 Kew Herbaria afforded me specimens corresponding to those he 

 described. He is perfectly correct in the one he identifies as the 

 original species of Grsertner, but, from a careful comparison of all 

 our specimens, I should have little hesitation in uniting his V. ma- 

 crantha, V. calyculata, V. Smithiana, and V. sulphurea with the 

 common northern one figured as above mentioned by Roxburgh. 

 The greater or less prominence of the rim of the calyx seems to 

 depend much on the degree of maturity of the fruit, although, 

 even in Strachey and "YY r interbottom's specimens, it never is so lax 

 as in the V. leiocarpa. The variatious in the size of the flowers and 

 length of the pedicels is often a consequence of the subdiceceous 

 nature of the species, the semifemale flowers being usually larger, 

 fewer, and on longer stalks than the semimale ones. The pubes- 

 cence and dentation of the leaves are also variable even on the 

 same specimens, although, no doubt, in so widely-spread a species 

 there must be slight local varieties of more or less permanence. 

 With regard to the name of the species, as it certainly is not 

 Gartner's plant, I have selected that of V. calyculata as being the 

 one of the four proposed by Tulasne which appears the most appro- 

 priate. The diagnoses of the three species might then stand as 

 follows : — 



1. V. maderaspatana (Gartn. Carp. i. 223, t. 49, non Roxb., Wight, 

 1c. i. t. 163). Tenuiter toiuentella v. glabrescens, florum fasciculis in 

 racemos interrupte panieulatos aphyllos dispositis v. inferioribus axil- 

 laribus, floribus eano-tomentellis, fructu tomentello v. glabrescente 

 basi calyci brcvissime adnato insidente. — V. bracteata, Ileyne in Wall. 

 Catal. no. 4269. 



Hab. In Ceylona, in Peninsula Indise orientalis, in Mergui (Griffith), 

 ad Moulmeyn (Lobb.). 



2. V. calyculata (Tul. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Par. ser. 4. viii. p. 124). Ca- 

 no-tomentosa v. pubescens, vix demum glabrescens, florum fasciculis in 

 racemos panieulatos aphyllos dispositis v. imis paucis axillaribus, flori- 

 bus cano-tomentellis v. pubescentibus, fructu tomentoso v. flavicante 

 in media mice calycis limbo parum prominulo annulato. — V. ma- 

 deraspatana, Roxb. PI. Corom. i. 55, t. 76. — V. sulphurea et V. Smi- 

 thiana, Tul. /. r., p. 125. — V. mavraritha, Tul. I. c, p. 123. 



