to the corolla in moist woods, but much smaller deeply- 
lobed leaves covered with minute warts on both surfaces, 
and smailer flowers with shorter fimpriz in drier and more 
open places. There is further great variation in the form 
size and cutting of the bracts, in the number of male 
flowers in a raceme, and in the form and cutting of the 
sepals, which are sometimes entire ovate-lanceolate and 
acuminate, at others toothed or serrate, or, as in the form 
here figured, dilated and pinnatifidly lacerate. Lastly the 
whole plant may be glabrous or more or less pubescent. 
Amid all these variations, however, the fruit and seeds are, 
as far as is known, constant in form, size, colour, and all 
other characters. 
T'. palmata occurs all over India, from the Western 
Himalaya eastward to Assam, and southward to Malabar, 
Ceylon and Singapore; it is also a native of the Malay 
Archipelago, China, Japan and North Australia. The 
Kew plants were raised from seeds sent from the Calcutta 
Botanical Gardens, which flowered in the Water-lily House 
in March, 1882. The flowers open in the evening, for one 
night only, and are sweet-scented. The following descrip- 
tion applies to the large forest form here figured. 
- Desor. A tall glabrous rambling climber, with long 
angular branches, which hang down for many feet from 
the branches of forest trees. Leaves four to eight inches 
long and broad, membranous, broadly ovate, palmately five- 
to seven-angled, tip and angles acuminate, bright green 
above with sunk nerves; petiole stout, two to four inches 
long; tendrils stout, two-fid or three-fid. Flowers dicecious, 
male in stoutly-peduncled axillary racemes three to six 
inches long, solitary, or rarely with a smaller few-flowered 
second; female fi. solitary, axillary. Bracts one and a 
half inch long or less, ovate, boat-shaped and sheathing, 
often bearing large black glands. Calyz-tube short; lobes 
lacerate, spreading. Corolla four inches in diameter eX- 
cluding the fimbriz, pure white. Fruit globose, one and a 
quarter to two inches in diameter, scarlet with ten orange 
stripes. Seeds very many, nearly one-third of an inch long, 
imbedded in green pulp.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Calyx; 2, anthers :—doth enlarged. 
