Tab. 7829. 



TUPISTRA GEANDIS. 



Native of the Malayan Peninsula. 



t 



Nat. Ord. Liliacb^. — Tribe Aspidistre*. 

 Genus Tupistra, Ker-Gawl, ; (Benth. & Hook.f. Oen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 772.) 



TupiSTRA grandis ; glaberrima, caudice brevi, foliis 2-3-ped. longis 3-5 poll, 

 latis lineari-lanceolatis longe acuminatis coriaceis supra laste viridibns 

 basi in petiolum crassum angustatis, pedunculo craaao ^ poll. diam. geni- 

 culatim declinato bracteisque fusco-purpureia, spica 8-10 poll, longa 

 aBcendente multiflora, bracteis triangulari-ovatis acutis concavia coroUao 

 tubo subsequilongia, bracteolis lanceolatis, perianthii tubo campanulato 

 \ poll, lato fusco-rubro, lobis 6 ovatia ^ poll, longis revolutia atro-jiur- 

 pureia, antheris parvis medio tube subseaailibus oblongia, ovario ovoideo 

 in stylum craasum album elongatum longe exsertnm eensim angustato, 

 atigmate umbraculaeformi 5 poll, lato piano radiatim sulcato margine 

 crenulato. 



T. grandis, Ridl. in Journ, Bof. xxxviii. (1900), p. 73. 



The species of the small tropical Indian genus Tupistra 

 are confined to the Eastern Himalaya, Burma, and the 

 Malayan Peninsula. Seven are described in the *' Flora 

 of British India," and no doubt others, besides that here 

 described, will be discovered when the interior of the 

 Malayan Peninsula is explored. The genus may further 

 be expected to occur in Sumatra and China. Three species 

 have been already figured in this work, T. squalida, Ker 

 (t. 1655), fromAmboyna; T. nutans, ^aW. (t. 3054), and 

 T. macrostigma. Baker (t. 6280), both the latter Hima- 

 layan. 



Tupistra grandis differs from its congeners in so far 

 as these have been fully described (some are very imper- 

 fectly known) in the long, columnar, white style, and orbi- 

 cular, thin, peltate stigma, with furrows radiating from 

 the centre to the crenulate margin. Living plants of it 

 were sent to the Hoyal Gardens, Kew, in 1899, from 

 Singapore, by Mr. H. N. Ridley, M.A., F.L.S., Director of 

 Forests and Gardens in the Straits Settlements, which 

 flowered in a tropical house in October of the same year. 

 It is a native of Perak, where it was found in the dense 

 forests of a hill called Bujong Malacca. 



Apkil 1st, 1902. 



