REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN MOLUCCAS. 207 



GYMNOSPERME.E. 



GNETACKtfJ. 

 Gnetum scandens, Roxb. 



Gnetum scandens, Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii. p. 518 ; DC, Prodr., xvi. 2, p. 351. 

 Gnetum edule, Blume; Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat, ii. p. 1068. 



Arrou.— Tropical India aud the Archipelago, but not entering Australia. Gnetum 

 comprises about fifteen species, generally spread in Tropical Asia, but only one is known 

 to occur in Africa ; one of the Archipelago species, Gnetum gnemon, has also been found 

 in the Fijis. 



CYCADE^E. 



Cycas circinalis, Linn. 



Cycas circinalis, Linn.; Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat., ii. p. 1077; Seem., Fl. Vit., p. 2CS; Jouan in Mem. 

 Soc. Sci. Nat. Cherbourg, xi. 1865, p. 147. 



Arrou. — Taken in a broad sense, this species is widely dispersed in Continental Asia, as 

 well as in the Archipelago and Polynesia, and it has also been collected at Cape York and 

 Albany Island, North Australia, in Madagascar, and Western Tropical Africa. 



At our request, Mr W. T. Thiselton Dyer has supplied the following particulars of 

 the distribution of the forms of Cycas circinalis : — 



" As far as I can make out, the forms of this species fall into two groups, of one of 

 which the distribution is predominantly western, the other eastern. Cycas circinalis, 

 Linn. (De Vriese, Descriptions et Figures des Plantes Nouvelles et Eares, 1851, tt. 4 et 5), 

 we have from Western Tropical Africa and Madagascar (Cycas thouarsil, R. Br. ; DC, 

 Prodr., xvi. p. 528), and from Malabar and Ceylon, perhaps also from the Nicobars ; and 

 Miquel (Fl. Ind. Bat., ii. p. 1077) records it from the coast districts of Java, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, Timor, and the Moluccas. Cycas rumphii, Miq. (De Vriese, Descr. etFig., 1851, 

 tt. 2 et 3), inhabits the Malay Peninsula \ the Moluccas (including Arrou), the Admiralty 

 Islands, Albany Island and Cape York, North Australia, the Solomon Islands (San 

 Christoval, Milne) ; and a Cycas from South China may be this form. 



"Cycas celebica, Miq. (Cycas neocaledonica, Hort.), comes close to Cycas rumphii, 

 and might form perhaps a third group with more or less unarmed petioles. I am inclined 

 to regard this as the Polynesian form. It is found in New Caledonia, New Britain, and 

 the Fiji Islands, and to it belongs Cycas seein<nini, Al. Br. With this must probably 

 be placed Cycas undulata, Hort. Cycas riuminiana, Regel (Gartenflora, 1863, p. 1G. 

 cam Jig. arboris), probably belongs to a different type. Cycas papuana, F. Much., 

 belongs to the same type as the Australian Cycas media, R. Br." 



