72 



peculiar character of this family. Leaves alternate, sessile, 

 lanceolate, acute, mucronate, very entire, very smooth, 

 shining and convex above, somewhat glaucous below, and when 

 examined by the microscope, appearing to be covered with 

 numerous, very minute, white dots, firm, with scarcely per- 

 ceptible longitudinal nerves. Spikes axillary, erect, much 

 shorter than the leaves ; peduncles somewhat tomentose. 

 Calyx supported at the base by 2 oval, acute, concave bracts, 

 5-leaved, oblong, acute; leaflets lanceolate, glaucescent, 

 ciliate. Corolla infundibuliform, a little longer than the 

 calyx, 5-fid, puberulent, segments lanceolate, bearded above 

 beyond the base. Stamens 5, short, alternate with the 

 laciniae. Filaments subulate. Anthers subpendulous, marked 

 on each side with a longitudinal furrow, simple, and bursting 

 longitudinally in the manner so accurately described by Mr. 

 R. Brown, Prodr. Fl. N. Holl. p. 535. Pollen globose. Ovary 

 surrounded at the base by five distinct, erect, obtuse scales, 

 5-celled, each cell containing a single, oblong ovule. Style 

 erect, villous. Stigma subglobose. Drupe baccate, subglo- 

 bose, 5-celled, cells 1 -seeded. 



Obs. The discovery of this species is remarkable, as 

 forming an exception to the general geographical distribution 

 of the EpacridecB, a family almost exclusively confined to 

 Australasia, or at least to the Southern hemisphere. Singa- 

 pore, situated at the extremity of the Malay peninsula, and 

 forming, as it were, the connecting link between Continental 

 or Western India, and the Islands of the great Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, partakes of this character in its Flora, which exhibits 

 many remarkable points of coincidence with the Floras of 

 both regions. I have had occasion to observe resemblances 

 between its productions, and those of the Northern frontier of 

 Bengal on one hand, and of the Moluccas on the other, 

 while the present connects it with the still more distant 

 range of New Holland. 



