FAR. €2065. 
HYDNOPHYTUM Forsgsn. 
Native of New Guinea. 
Nat. Ord. Rusrace#.—Tribe PsycHoTrRiga. 
Genus Hyvvopnytum, Jack. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 132.) 
Hypnornytum Forbesii; rhizomate tuberoso lobato echinato, caulibus bre- 
vibus teretibus, foliis subsessilibus obovatis obtusis v. subacutis, floribus 
axillaribus brevissime pedicellatis, calycis tubo brevissimo ore truncato, 
corolla tubo elongato gracili cylindraceo lobis ovatis pluries longiore 
‘extus lobisque glaberrimis, fauce exannulato tubique parte saperiore 
villosis, filamentis antheris brevioribus, stylo gracili, stigmatibus 2 in- 
clusis, drupa ellipsoidea umbonata, pyrenis 2 obovoideo-oblongis com- 
pressis apice 2-lobis inter lobos longe rostratis. 
T must refer to Plate 6883 (Myrmecodia Beccarit) for 
some general observations on the wonderful group of 
epithytic plants to which Signor Beccari has given the very 
appropriate name of ‘ Piante ospitratice,” from their 
tuberous rootstocks affording nests for certain species of 
ants. Of these there are two principal Asiatic genera, 
natives of the Malayan and Pacific Coasts and Islands, 
both belonging to the order Rubiacea, and closely allied 
to one another. These are Myrmecodia, with eighteen 
species, and Hydnophytum with thirty, most of the species 
of both of which were discovered by Signor Beccari him- 
self, and are admirably described in detail and figured by 
him in hig capital work “ Malesia,” a work now abandoned 
through lack of the requisite funds to carry it on ; and 
with respect of which abandonment it may truly be said 
that the glory of Italian Botany has for the present departed. 
I can nowhere find amongst the species hitherto — 
described, any with which H. Forbesi can be confounded ; 
it is the only one hitherto described with an echinate 
rhizome, that character being hitherto supposed to be 
confined to Myrmecodia. In its long slender corolla tube 
:t resembles the Pacific Island species alone, of which there 
are six or seven, all differing in other characters from 
H. Forbesii. Its foliage so closely resembles that of the 
Fersrvuary Ist, 1892. 
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