MR. H. TEIMEN ON BALAKOPUORA THWAITESII. 331 



my recently published List of Ceylou Plants* I so entered it. 

 It has not been again met with in Ceylon, and must be rare, 

 whilst -5, indica is very frequent in the mountain forests f. 



The following description of B. Thwaitesii was made from 

 the living plants above mentioned; — Bhizome coral-like, much 

 branched or lobed, studded at intervals with very large stellate 

 pustules; heads apparently dioecious, bursting irregularly through 

 the rind of the rhizome, ultimately rather long-stalked. Male 

 plant entirely bright lemon-yellow, the young bracts orange- 

 coloured, peduncle variable in length, completely concealed by 

 large fleshy, elongated, oblong-obtuse decurrent leaf-scales, which 

 pnss into flower-bracts above; flower-bracts always conspicuous, 

 being as long as the buds in the upper part and as the pedicels 

 of fully opened flowers below, thick and fleshy, strongly ribbed 

 above and channelled beneath so that the ends are crenate in 

 outline; flowers large, not very densely crowded; perianth- 

 segments over § inch long, reflexed; anther-head \ inch, cells 

 hippocrepiform.* _F*??;^a/e^/a;^^ rather taller, the head 3 inches by 

 2|, ovoid-clavate, and exserted beyond the leaf-scales, brownish 



yellow ; flowers minute, the ovaries shortly stalked, ovoid or 

 pyriform, nearly always inserted on the receptacle, and surround- 

 ing the bases of the stalked oblong-ovate truncate brownish 

 Bpadicels ; styles very long, tapering, somewhat exceeding the 

 spadicels. 



The whole plant is full of a waxy juice and has a strong mousy 

 smell. Its large size and bright yellow colour give it at first 

 sight a very diff*erent look from B. indica, but yet it is difficult to 

 formulate definite characters. Those which appear to be the 

 most valuable are :— the large size of the stellate pustules on the 

 rhizome, the prominent, longer, crenated flower-bracts of the male 

 heads, the ovoid or pear-shaped exserted female flower-heads, and 

 the short-stalked female flowers (ovaries) inserted on the re- 

 ceptacle and very rarely attached to the bases of the spadicels. 

 I had hoped that this last character would have proved an absq- 

 lute one, the rest being merely comparative; but a further 

 examination and comparison along with Mr. Fawxett has shown me 

 that occasionally the ovaries have their insertion on the spadiccl- 

 stalks, as in B. indica. 



* Trimen, Sjst. Cat. Ceylon Plants, p. 77 (1885). 



t The specimens in spirit of B. indica exhibited were coUected by Prof. Bower 



