PLATE I. 
HODGSONIA HETEROCLITA, ay. «7 
Nat. Ord. CucurBiTacna. 
Char. Gen.—Fu. Mas. Calycis tubus elongatus ; limbus patcriformis, 5-gonus. Petala 5, basi calycis limbo et inter se con- 
nata, patentia, apice truncata, fimbriato-lobata ; lobis longissimis, tortis, pendulis. Stamina 5, triadelpha. Anthere 
monadelphee ; loculis linearibus, contortis—F1. Fam. Calye maris, sed basi ovario spherico adherens. Corolla 
maris. Ovarium \-loculare. Placente 3, parietales, basi utrinque 2-ovulate. Stylus clongatus, tubum calycis 
equans. Stigma 3-lobum. Bacca depresso-globosa, sulcata, pulpa dura repleta. Semina per paria in nuces 6 
arcte accreta, altero minore plerumque effceto. Testa lignosa, reticulatim sulcata. Hndopleura crassissima, suberosa. 
Limbryo exalbuminosus. Cotyledones magni, plani; radicula brevis ; plumula lobata.—Caulis alte scandens, ramosus. 
Folia alterna, sempervirentia, coriacea, palmatiloba. Flores magni, extus rufo-brunnet, velutini v. puberuli, intus 
straminet, villosi: masculi spicati, basi bracteati : foeminei avillares, plerumque solitarii. Petioli elongatt. Cirrhi 
laterales, 2-5-fidi. 
Hopesonta heteroclita (Hook. fil. et Thoms. in Proceedings of the Linnean Society, No. LIV. Nov. 1853); foliis 3—5-lobis 
glaberrimis, calycis lobis dorso glandula cornea, petalis obcuneatis fimbriis longissimis tortis, bacca brunnea velu- 
tina, seminibus oblongis testa profunde reticulatim sulcata.—Trichosanthes heteroclita, Rod. Fl. Ind. v. 3. p. 705 ; 
Wall. Cat. No. 6684. 'T. grandiflora, Wall. Cat. No. 6685, non Blume. 
Has. In sylvis densis montium inferiorum Sikkim-Himalaye, ad alt. 5500 ped. ascendens ; Assam, mont. Khasia ; Silhet ; 
Chittagong ; Penang; Java? #V. May, June. 
This magnificent plant is one of the most curious and beautiful of the whole natural family to which it 
belongs, and was therefore selected by Dr. Thomson and myself to bear the name of B. H. Hodgson, Esq., 
F.L.S., of Dorjiling, in the Sikkim-Himalaya, a gentleman whose scientific services in the Himalaya of Nipal 
and Sikkim justly merit this honour, and in whose hospitable residence my examination of this splendid plant 
was conducted. 
Hodgsonia is very common in many parts of Eastern Bengal, but has not hitherto been cultivated in 
England ; it once flourished in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, but has long since been lost there. Its 2e0- 
graphical distribution is very extensive, as it appears to range from almost the level of the sea in the island 
of Penang, lat. 6° N., to 5000 feet in the Sikkim-Himalaya, lat. 27° N.; at the latter elevation, however, 
inhabiting the deepest and most sheltered valleys of the outer range. It is probably also a native of Java, 
for it agrees tolerably with the descriptions of several species of Zrichosanthes described by Dr. Blume. 
The stems are slender lianas, frequently one hundred feet long; they climb the forest trees, and their 
branching ends, matted together, and covered with leaves, sometimes form dense hanging screens of bright 
green foliage. ‘The large flowers appear in May, and are very deciduous, the males falling wholly away, 
and the females breaking off just above the ovary; these flowers may often be seen strewing the ground in 
abundance in the forest, when the plant itself cannot be recognized amidst the canopy of vegetation above 
the traveller’s head. The great melon-like fruit, called “ Kathior-pot” by the Lepchas, ripens in autumn 
and winter. Its coarse, hard, green pulp exudes a gummy fluid in great abundance, but is austere and un- 
