130 DR. H. F. HANCE’S SUPPLEMENT TO 
*Smilax China, Linn. ; Kunth, Enum. Plant. y. 243. (=S. ferox, Wall.; 
Benth. Fl. Hongk. 370.) 
There is, I believe, no doubt of Wallich's plant being identical 
with that of Linnzus, which supplies a part at least of the “ China 
root" of commerce. It is gratifying to be able to quote, in sup- 
port of this opinion, so high an authority as Mr. Daniel Hanbury, 
who has lately informed me that the examination of a great many 
specimens fully convinces him that it is well founded. 
* Commelyna. 
Mr. C. B. Clarke, in a valuable paper * On the Commelynace® 
of Bengal" (Journ. Linn. Soc. xi. 442), says that the seeds of C. 
salicifolia, Roxb., are smooth, those of C. communis, Linn., reticu- 
late; both species have two of the cells 2-, the remaining one 1- 
seeded. He transfers C. cespitosa, Roxb., as a synonym from the 
former to the latter species. In C. benghalensis, Linn., I find the 
seeds of a greyish-black colour, irregularly transversely rugose, 
oblong, rounded on the dorsal and flattened on the ventral face, 
and with the embryo not opposite, but lateral as regards the 
linear hilum, to which, indeed, one side of its plumular extremity 
is nearly contiguous. 
*Pollia sorzogonensis, Endl. 
Mr. Clarke (7. c.) not only combines with this, under the name 
of P. indica, Thw., the Japanese P. japonica, Kth. (which I have 
also from Canton province), but also the Javan P. thyrsiflora, 
Endl., the inflorescence of which is very different. The leaves of 
the Hongkong plant are perfeetly smooth, those of P. japonica 
extremely scabrous to the touch on both surfaces. 
42. Eriocaulon sexangulare, Linn.; Kunth, Enum. Plant. iii. 5515 
Kern. Monogr. Eriocaul. 53. 
In sandy places by the sea, Kau-lung peninsula: discovered by 
Mr. Sampson in August 1864. On the continent of India, n 
Ceylon, the Philippines, Java, Japan, and Abyssinia. With 5- 
nerved leaves, broader and longer than in Drs. Hooker and 
Thomson’s Malabar specimens. Kórnicke records his variety 
B, vulgaris with 3-nerved leaves both from Japan and China (the 
latter specimens, I presume, gathered by Meyen or Philippi, and 
therefore from the south), also (in Miq. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd- 
Bat. iii. 162) the present form from Japan. 
43. Cyperus castaneus, Willd. ; Nees in Wight, Contrib. 79; Kunth, 
Enum. Plant, it. 21. 
