480 DR O. STAPF ON SARARANGA SINUOSA. 
sible for them. I undertook, therefore, the examination of 
the fresh material, the results of which are contained in this 
paper. The male flowers are still unknown, and my observa- 
tions are therefore restricted to the female. 
Finally, I have to express my thanks to Mr. Thiselton Dyer 
for permission to include an illustration from one of the photo- 
graphs mentioned above. 
The Female Flower. 
Before describing the structure of the female flower of 
Sararanga it may be well to repeat part of the description of 
the female tree by Lieutenants Somerville and Weigall as pub- 
lished in the Kew Bulletin above mentioned. This will also 
serve at the same time as an explanation of Pl. IV. According 
to this description, Sararanga sinuosa is a tree which attains an 
average height of “60 feet, including the branches which 
radiate out from the stem at the top of the trunk only, toa 
length of about 10 feet.” The trunk is coated with “a thick 
covering cf small tendril-like roots, closely adhering together 
and tightly packed to the tree,” but “there were no aerial 
roots in any instance.” 
“The flower head grows in the centre of the leaf branches, 
which themselves occur at the end of the large branches 
radiating from the head of the trunk. It consists of a tough 
main stem, strongly bent at the foot, so as to cause the flower 
head to hang downwards, from which spring 30 flower- 
branchlets diminishing in size to the point, which forms a 
branch itself. They grow two in opposition, followed by two 
more in opposition, but placed on the opposite diameter of the 
main stem. The lowest, largest flower-branchlet had 16 minor 
branches springing from it, growing irregularly both in 
distance and position, and bearing 162 blossoms. When first 
cut down the blossoms had a faint fetid odour like that of a 
harvest bug, which, however, soon passed off.” The two 
panicles measured were 45 and 60 inches long; their rhachis 
was over | inch thick at the base, and the lower branches had 
a length of 11 inches. 
Mr. Hemsley described the fleshy sinuously-lobed bodies 
which are born by the ultimate ramifications of the panicle as 
“receptacula florifera.” I may state at once that I shall term 
them “flowers” and give the reasons later on. These feanale 
