FLORA VITIENSIS. 161 
-nervis lateralibus prope peripheriam connexis; pedunculis apice ramorum oppositis, 3- aut 4-natis, 
superne dicho- v. trichotomis; floribus szpius albis.— Pala, Juss. Ann. Mus. vol. xv. p. 346. 
Subgen. Dissuraspermum, A. Gray in Proceed. Amer. Acad. vol. v. Semina undique æqualiter 
et creberrime ciliato-plumosa, haud vero comosa, basi apiceque in acumen vel caudam producta, 
cauda superiori apice bifida; albumen tenuissimum. Corolle lobi lineari-lanceolati, sestivatione 
sinistrorsum (sensu Candollii) convoluti. Faux barbata.— Frutices vel arbuscule Insularum Pacifice ; 
foliis oppositis, petiolis angustissime marginatis, basi plus minus dilatatis; cymis patentibus. 
To this subgenus belongs A. costata, R. Brown, l. c. (.Echites costata, Forst. Prodr. n. 123 excl. syn., 
et Icon. (ined.) t. 71; Sol. Prim. Fl. Ins. Pacif. (ined.) p. 343; Parkinson, Drawings of Tahitian Plants (ined.) 
t. 35.) from the Society Islands (Banks and Solander! Wiles and Smith! Forster! Barclay! Bidwill!). 
* Brown's doubt," says A. Gray, l. c., “whether the cilia which fringe the seeds were elongated at the 
base and apex into a coma, evinced his usual caution. In fact, the seeds are not properly comose at all, 
but equably ciliate-fringed all round, the tails short, flat, and equally fringed with the rest of the margin, 
the lower one entire and rather blunt, the upper notched or bifid. The rudiments of one or both of these 
tails are to be seen in A. ophiozyloides, F. Müll., in which the hairs extend both ways into a coma. Forster’s 
description of the seeds * margine cylindrica’ is, I presume, a lapsus for * margine ciliata." "' 
1. A. plumosa, Labill. Sert. Austr. Cal. p. 28. t. 32; DC. 1. c.; foliis elliptico-oblongis, basi 
. acuminatis, apice obtusis, glabris; cymis floriferis longitudine foliorum, fructiferis multo longioribus ; 
calycis 5-fidi lobis obtusis; corolle fauce hispida, lobis lineari-oblongis, interne pubescentibus, tubo 
\ 
sublongioribus, obtusis; folliculis longissimis.—Viti Levu and Vanua Levu (Milne!). Also col- 
lected in New Caledonia by Labillardiére, and in the Samoan islands by the U.S. Expl. Exped. 
“A. plumosa, Labill.," remarks A. Gray, l. c., * to which must belong our specimens from the Samoan and 
Fiji Islands, is more closely related to the foregoing than would be inferred from Labillardiére's plate, as 
that does not well represent the stigma (indusiate-appendaged below, and with sharper lobes above,) nor 
the calyx, which is five-parted to the base. But the seeds are not badly figured, except that the long tails 
are flat in our specimens rather than exactly filiform. These two species might be wholly detached from 
Alstonia with better reason than Blaberopus has been.” 
2. A. villosa, (sp: nov.) Seem.; foliis oppositis longe petiolatis ovalibus utrinque acutis, supra 
glabris, subtus villosis; floribus ignotis; folliculis longissimis cylindricis glabris.— Viti Levu 
(Seemann! n. 318). | 
Possibly Deplanche’s n. 66, from New Caledonia, may be identical with this species, which I collected 
in fruit only, and distributed under the erroneous name of A. plumosa, Labill. Petiole 15-2 inches long. 
Blade of leaf 6-8 inches long, 3—4 inches broad.  Follicles 1 foot long. 
3. A. (?) sp.; arbor 30 ped.; glaber ; foliis obovato-oblongis obtusis in petiolum attenuatis 
crasse coriaceis ; fl. fructibusque ignotis.— Viti Levu (Seemann! n. 317). 
Specimens neither in flower nor fruit; in leaf resembling some undescribed Bornean species contained 
in Hooker’s Herbarium.  Petioles, 13 inches long; blade, 5-6 inches long, 2-3 inches broad. 
* Li 
f 
f 
Orvo LXI. ASCLEPIADEÆ. 
We have, besides the plants mentioned below, the following members of this Natural Order in tropical 
, Polynesia :—1. Sarcostemma australe, R. Brown (Cynanchum viminale, Forst. Prodr. n. 127, non Linn.), 
from the Botanist Island (Forster !), Isle of Pines (Sir E. Home !), and New Caledonia (Capt. Cook !); 
2. Asclepias Curassavica, Linn., from Eromanga, New Hebrides (M‘Gillivray 1) and the Tongan (Harvey !) 
and Society Islands (Lay and Collie!), probably introduced, as not known to the older botanists; and 
3. Hybanthera biglandulosa, Endl., from Norfolk Island, and thought by Asa Gray to belong to the genus 
Tylophora. f 
` I. Tylophora, R. Brown in Trans. Wern. Soc. vol. i. p. 28; DC. Prodr. vol. viii. p. 606. 
[PUBLISHED OCTOBER 1, 1866.] Y 
