204 NOTES ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 



puberulous; style a little longer than calyx, with a capitate stigma. 



A poor specimen in immature fruit was sent me in 1882 by Mr. 

 Vincent, with the vernacular name of " Tampale," and is referred 

 to in his Report on the Ceylon Forests (par, 106, 147) as " Vatica 

 sp.," and described as a fine timber-tree. I have since received 

 good flowering specimens collected in June, 1884, by Capt. Walker, 

 Forester, at Polukanawa in the same district ; and this gentleman 

 is endeavouring to obtain also ripe fruit, which it is very desirable 

 to examine. V. ohscura is apparently a near ally of V. ajjinis Thw., 

 a tree of the S.W. of Ceylon, but ripe fruit may show them to be 

 more distinct than now appears. The principal differences consist 

 in the narroAver and thinner leaves with twice as many lateral veins, 

 the less deeply divided calyx with more obtuse segments, and the 

 larger flowers of V. uhscura. I was at first inclined to refer the 

 latter, from descriptions only, to V. Umcea/ulia Bl. {Vatica Hoxh.), 

 of East Bengal, but Mr. Thiselton Dyer, to whom I submitted a 

 specimen, thinks it certainly not that plant. 



All these belong to Wight's Isan.vis, a good genus, but not 

 requiring a new name, being the original Vatica of Linnfeus. V. 

 cldnensis L., the type of the genus (figured in J. E. Smith's Ic. Ined. 

 t. 36), is clearly the same as V. Uoxbun/hiana Bl.,* the common 

 " Mendora" of Ceylon ; but I suppose this specific name may have 

 to be regarded as a "nomen falsum," as the plant does not grow in 

 China. In this genus the calyx-segments are all equally enlarged 

 in fruit. Included also in Vatica by the authors of the ' Genera 

 Plantarum' are other species to form a section, unfortunately termed 

 Eu-vatica, in which two only of tlie calyx-segments are greatly 

 enlarged ; on the principles followed for genera in this family, this 

 should rather be considered as distinct; and as it seems to be 

 Snna2)tcaj- of Griffith that name may be adopted. To it belongs 

 Vateria {Stcmonoporus) scabrinscida Thw. Enum. p. 404 [Vatica 

 A. DC), the fruit of which has been discovered more recently, and 

 probably also F. disticha Thw. /. c, of which the fruit is still 

 unknown. The fruiting- calyx of this genus is much like that of 

 Hupea (in which, as "Sect. 2," A. DC. includes Sunaptea <jrandi- 

 Jinra) ; but the segments are free and loose, not twisted and 

 imbricated, as in Hopea {i. e., H. discolor and H.jucunda of Ceylon). 



Thorea Dyerii Thw. ms.- — Leaves (floral) 2^-S in. long, on 

 petioles f-^ in., narrowly ovate-lanceolate, gradually tapering to 

 the subacuminate obtuse apex ; lateral veins 12-14 on either side, 

 connected by fine transverse parallel veiulets ; flowers numerous, 

 sessile, small, rather closely placed, and secund along the upper 

 side of the short divaricate branchlets of the large spreading axillary 

 and terminal inflorescence ; buds small, bluntly conical, the whole 

 densely covered with a fine grey pubescence of sessilely stellate 

 hairs, mixed on the flowers with simple silky ones ; calyx-segments 



* In the 'Gen. Plantarum,' i., p. 192, " Vatica indica L." (F. chincmis being 

 no doubt meant) is erroneously referred to Hopca grandiflora Wall. = Vatica, 

 Dyer in Fl. Brit. India, i., p. 301. 



t Griffith, Icones, iv., p. x., t. 585 A, f. 5 (flowers only). I have not the text 

 (Notula;, v., p. 316) here to refer to. 



