swingle: a salt-tolerant citrous plant 423 



The name of the kigerukkan, the only species known in this 

 genus, becomes: 



Merope angulata (WiUd.) Swingle, comb, nov.^ 

 Citrus angulata Willd. Sp. PI., ed. 4, S^: 1426. 1801. 

 Sclerostylis spinosa Blume, Bijdr, Fl. Ned. Ind. 1: 134. 1825. 

 Limonia spinosa Spreng. Syst. Veg., ed. 16, 4^: 162. 1827. 

 Ghjcosmis spinosa Dietr. Syn. PI. 2: 1409. 1840. 

 Merope spinosa Poem. Syn. Mon. Hesp. 1: 44. 1846. 

 Limonia angulosa Wight & Arnott; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 1-: 521. 1859. 

 Atalantia longispina Kurz, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 41^: 295. 1872. 

 Gonocitrus angulatus Kurz, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 42-: 228, pi. 18. 



1874. 

 Paramignya longispina Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 1: 511. 1875. 

 Paramignya angulata Kurz, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 44^: 135. 1876. 

 Atalantia spinosa Hook, f . Index Kew. 4: 849. 1895. (vide Koorders, 



Exkursionsfl. Jav. 2: 427. 1912.) 



Leaves coriaceous, inconspicuously veined, alternate; petioles simple. 

 Twigs with very strong spines, often in pairs. Flowers borne singly or 

 in pairs (rarely in few-flowered clusters) in the axils of the leaves; ovary 

 stalked on a rather tall disk, 3-5-celled, with 2-4 pendulous ovules in 

 each cell; stamens 10, free; anthers linear oblong. Fruits strongly 

 angled, triangular in cross section; cells filled with a sticky mucilaginous 

 fluid (without true pulp vesicles) ; seeds very large, flattened, reniform, 

 caudate at the tip where attached. Cotyledons in germination aerial, 

 not increasing in size; first fohage leaves alternate, broadly ovate. 



A large shrub or small tree (not a climbing shrub), growing on the 

 seashore in tidal forests or mangrove swamps from the mouth of the 

 Ganges to the Moluccas. 



MEROPE RESISTANT TO SOIL SALINITY 



This plant, which has not received the attention it merits, 

 either from botanists or horticulturists, was discovered in the 

 Moluccas and has since been found in Java, at Malacca, in upper 

 Tenasserim and lower Pegu (Burma), and in the Sunderbuns 

 (the mouth of the Ganges in India). These regions represent 

 a range of nearly 3000 miles, and it will doubtless be found 

 to be widely distributed throughout the Malay Archipelago. 

 It is likely to have escaped most collectors, however, because 

 of its restriction to inaccessible coastal swamps. 



The fact that Merope angulata grows only along the seashore 



* The following pre-Linnaean name is referable to this species: Limonellus 

 angulosus Rumph. Herb. Amboin. 2: 110. pi. 32. 1741. 



