Tab. 7343. 

 HYDNOPHYTUM longiflorum. 



Native of the Fiji Islands. 



Nat. Ord. RvmACEM. — Tribe Pstchotkie^;. 

 Genus Htdnophttum, Jacq. ; (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen, PI. vol ii. p. 132.) 



Hydnophytum longiflorum ; fraticulus glaberrimus, ramulis crassiusculis tereti- 

 bus, foliia brevissirae petiolatis ellipticis subacutis coriaceis costa crassa, 

 stipulis ovatis deciduis, floribus axillaribus confertis sessilibus, corolla 

 albse tubo semipollicari gracili limbi lobis ovatis triplo longiore, antheris 

 ore corollas subsessilibus, stigmate didymo. 



H. longiflorum, A. Gray in Proc. Am. Acad. vol. iv. (1860), p. 42 (Bot. 

 Contrib. (1858), No. 10). Seem. Fl. Vit. 438. Beccari. Malesia, vol. ii. 

 p. 172, t. 45, f. 5-7. 



Myrmecodia vitiensis, Seem, in Bonplandia, vol. ix. (1861), p. 256. A. Gray, 

 in Bonplandia, vol. x. (1862), p. 36. 



Under Tab. 6883 of this Magazine {Myrmecodia Beccarii) 

 I have given some particulars of the history of the two 

 genera of Rubiaceous insect-harbouring plants, Myrmecodia 

 and Hydnophytum. Of these the first had then for the 

 first time been flowered in Europe, and it is now followed 

 by the second. Many attempts had previously been made 

 to bring or send living plants of both home to England ; 

 the first of which was at my request, by Mr. Wallace 

 about thirty-five years ago, from whom specimens of a 

 Myrmecodia were received at the Royal Gardens, from the 

 Malay Peninsula, but in a dying state. Subsequently 

 specimens of a Hydnophytum were imported at various 

 times from Queensland, but none of them survived the 

 voyage, with the exception of the specimen of H. Beccarii> 

 imported by Messrs. Veitch, and figured at t. 6883. Hydno- 

 phytum differs from Myrmecodia, not only in the tubers 

 never being prickly, but also in distribution ; for though 

 both find their western limit in the Malayan Archipelago, 

 Hydnophytum alone extends eastward beyond tropical 

 Australia, into the Polynesian Islands, where six species 

 have been found in the Fiji group alone. It is not known 

 whether any of these Fijian species harbour ants, as de 



March 1st, 18U4. 



