16 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



DICOTYLEDONS. 



Amongst these certain genera occupy a leading position and 

 give a character to the whole flora. These are shown in the 

 following catalogue. The genera of sedges and some of the 

 insignificant weeds, rushes, grasses, &c., are not included in the 

 estimate. 



Leguminos^ : — Large genera : Desmodium, Crotalaria, Cassia 

 Bauhinia, Indigo/era, Flemingia, Dalhergia, Pterocarpus, Ccesal- 

 pinia, Derris, Pithecolobium. 



Endemic genera :* Mecopus, Phylacium (Arch.), Ahauria (B.), 

 Amherstia (Ten.), Pahudia (Arch.), Sindora (M.P.). 



Urticace^ : — The genus Ficus is beyond all question the most 

 thoroughly characteristic of the Malayan flora, numbering 

 formerly between 400 and 500 species, but since Dr. King's 

 revision reduced to 207. They are trees or shrubs with milky 

 juice, alternate leaves with varied shape, the leaf-buds covered by 

 deciduous leaf -scales. The fruits or figs are called receptacles, 

 closed at the mouth by numerous scales in rows ; the base narrow, 

 with bracts, sessile or pedunculate, in pairs in the axils of the 

 leaves or of the scars of fallen leaves. Dr. G. King,! whose obser- 

 vations have been made almost exclusively on Tndo-Malayan and a 

 few Chinese species, has arranged them in seven sections, of 

 which, leaving out the technical detail, the following are the 

 characters: — (1) Paloiomorphe : small trees and erect or sub- 

 scandent shrubs. (2) Urostigma : usually trees or powerful 

 climbers ; epiphytal at least in early life ; leaves alternate, entire, 

 coriaceous, rarely membranous ; receptacles in the axils of the 

 leaves or of the scars of fallen leaves, with three bracts at the 



*The following letters after the genus represent the locality in which it is 

 found :— M.P. Malay Peninsula, S. Sumatra, J. Java, B. Borneo, C. 

 Celebes, Mol. Moluccas, Ten. Teuasserim, Arch. Malay Archipelago. 



t " Observations on the genus Ficus with special reference to the In do- 

 Malayan and Chinese species," Jour. Linn. Soc. Botany, XXIV". (1887), p. 27. 



