DR. O. STAPF ON THE FLORA OF MOUNT KINABALU. 97 
distinctly to Malaya, so that we cannot call them Philippine elements at all. The 
remaining 3 species are Evodia subunifoliolata, Rhododendron cuneifolium, and Rh. 
ericoides. The two Rhododendrons are represented by one or two very close allies on the 
volcano Apó in Mindanao. Sir Ferdinand von Mueller describes Rhododendron 
gracilentum as very similar to Rh. ericoides, but I do not know the species, except from 
description. There may be some resemblance with certain Himalayan species, but the 
affinity is by no means close enough to trace them back to these, or vice versd. They 
form a small group by themselves, characteristic of Kinabalu and Mindanao. Yet it is 
impossible to say whether they are more Philippine or more Kinabalu elements, and, if 
Sir Ferdinand von Mueller’s Rhododendron gracilentum is really so closely allied to Rh. 
ericoides, they would be members of a type of far wider and more eastern range. As to 
-Evodia subunifoliolata I must refer to the special part. The species is, moreover, too 
imperfectly known to base upon it any deductions. 
f. Elements common to Kinabalu and Austro-Malaya only.—I have to mention only 
2 or 3 species as closely allied to Austro-Malayan forms, and having at the same time no 
distinct and close relations otherwise. They are Medinilla lasioclados, Elatostemma Lowii, 
and a species of Myrsine. The specimen representing this Myrsine is too incomplete for 
description, but sufficient to show a distinct affinity with a small Austro-Malayan branch 
of the genus. The Medinilla belongs to a group represented in the eastern part of the 
Indo-Malayan region and even extending into Polynesia. The phylogenetic relations, 
however, of the species of Medinilla as well as those of Elatostemma are still too obscure 
to justify me in laying any particular stress upon these instances. This almost entire 
absence of pronounced Austro-Malayan elements is another very characteristic feature 
in the flora of Kinabalu. Yet it must not be overestimated, as we shall see that 
other very important relations—relations of a higher order and a more remote date— 
exist between the flora of Kinabalu and Austro-Malaya. 
g. Elements common to Kinabalu and Indo-China, and belonging to types having a 
centre in Indo-China.—The only species to be mentioned here are an Jiliciwm, too 
imperfectly known to be described, and Stranvesia integrifolia. The Asiatic area of 
the genus Jiliciwm covers Indo-China and subtropical China, and extends westward to 
the Khasia Hills, Lower Burma, and the Malay Peninsula. One species is known 
from Florida, and another from Cuba. It is one of those archaic genera which once 
must have had a Circumpacific distribution of which the present areas are only remnants. 
Whether it had formerly a wider range in the Malay Archipelago, or whether the 
habitat on Kinabalu marks the south-eastern limit to which the genus advanced from 
what is at present Continental Asia, we do not know. The genus Stranvesia is known 
from South-west China, from the Eastern Himalaya and the Khasia Hills. It is 
closely allied to Photinia, from which it differs mainly in a technical character derived 
from the fruit. There are very few species of Photinia which reach the Malayan region. 
and all of them can be traced back to the Himalayan region or to Indo-China and even 
temperate China, where they join the true Boreal flora to which the suborder of Pomacee 
almost exclusively belongs. 
h. Elements common to Kinabalu and the Himalayan Region only.—The number of 
