belong to the species which has been accepted by most 
authors dealing with the vegetation of Australia as 
D. scandens. But while this is the case it is certainly 
quite different from the irue D. scandens of India and Indo- 
China, and in Australia, where it is met with as a littoral 
species from Clarence River in New South Wales to the 
extreme north of Queensland and is known as the Climbing 
Derris or the Fish-poison Pod, it is the representative 
of D. scandens. This south-eastern representative of 
D. scandens is not, however, confined to Australia; it 
extends beyond the Torres Straits northwards to New 
Guinea, and it was upon New Guinea specimens that its 
claim to specific rank was first established. The material 
for our plate has been obtained from the Kew plant which 
has in most years since 1904 produced a few inflorescences. 
This shyness in flowering, probably due to an insufficiency 
of strong sunshine, militates against the horticultural value 
of the species in this country, though doubtless under tropical 
conditions it would provea rival to its near ally, D. scandens, 
which when loaded with its racemes of rather smaller white 
flower is a remarkably striking object. D. oligosperma, 
like D. scandens, is a species very easily grown, being the 
reverse of fastidious as regards soil, and being readily 
propagated from cuttings of the ripened wood when seed 
is not available. 
Derscriprion.—Shrub ; stems woody, climbing, over 50 ft. 
long, at the base under 2 in. thick; twigs terete, at first 
Tusty-pubescent. Leaves 543-6 in. long; petiole 14 in. long, 
pubescent like the twigs, rachis, and petiolules; stipules 
small, closely rusty-pubescent; rachis canaliculate, particu- 
larly towards the distal end ; leaflets 5-6-paired, elliptic- 
ovate or oblong-obovate or the terminal elliptic-obovate, 
somewhat retuse at the tip, mucronulate, the lower ones 
obliquely subtruncate, the upper ones cuneate or wide- 
cuneate, 14-23 in. long, 3-14 in. wide, chartaceous, glabrous 
above except on the midrib and nerves, finely reticulate, 
paler beneath, and there densely hairy on the nerves 
sparsely so between; lateral nerves 5-7 on each side, 
visible above, raised beneath, petiolules ,!;—! in. long. 
Racemes axillary, about 5 in. long, peduncle in flower 
hardly 1 in. long, longer in fruit, nodes prominent, each 
/ 
