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ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF CEYLON, 1885-88. 



By Henry Trimen, M.B., F.R.S. 



The notes which I pubHshed in the volume of this Journal for 

 1885 brought up our knowledge of the constituents of the Ceylon 

 flora to the end of 1884. During the four years which have since 

 elapsed, a good many additional species have been discovered either 

 by myself, by my deceased friend Mr. W. Ferguson, or by Mr. H. 

 Nevili. These are enumerated in the following pages, and those of 

 them which I believe to be new to science are named and described. 

 I have to acknowledge aid received from the officers of the herbaria 

 at Kew and the British Museum, and, in the Grasses, from M. 

 Hackel, of St. Polten, Austria. 



Cleome Chelidonii L. f. Scattered rather sparingly about the 

 borders of Mineri Tank, or rather Lake, Sept. 1885, and conspicuous 

 from its large pink flowers. Known from several parts of India 

 (where Koenig first collected it near Tanjore), and from Java. 



Calophyllum pulcherrimum Wall. ? Several small trees by the 

 sides of a rocky stream in Mandagala Forest, near Hewesse, Pasdun 

 Korale, March, 1887, in full flower. Their extremely bright yellow 

 very smooth bark gave them a remarkable appearance. From C. 

 Burmanni, which this a good deal resembles, it differs in the bark 

 just mentioned, in the smaller flowers on much more slender 

 peduncles, and in the smaller and narrower leaves and quite glabrous 

 young shoots. The habitat is also quite unlike that affected by C. 

 Burmanni, which is a tree of dry sandy places near the sea-coast, 

 and not a forest species. I cannot feel sure as to the name of this 

 tree. C. gracile and C. bancanum of Mi quel are referred to C, 

 pulcherrimum in Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 271-2, and the range of distribution 

 is there given as Singapore, Malacca, Sumatra, Banca. C. Teijs- 

 manni Zoll. also seems to be very close. There is a plate of C. 

 pulcherrimum in Pierre's 'Flore Forestiere de la Cochin-Chine,' 

 t. 104. 



Vatica obscura Trim. When describing this in 1885 (Journ. Bot. 

 xxiii. 203), I had not seen the fruit. This has since been suppHed 

 to me by Capt. Walker, and I am thus able to complete the 

 description of the species : — Fruit ovate-ovoid, about 1 in. long, 

 and nearly as wide at base, blunt-pointed; persistent sepals all 

 enlarged, about | in. long, rigid, deflexed at the base, but after- 

 wards erect-spreading, with the points in contact with the base of 

 the fruit ; pericarp smooth but not shining, dull chocolate-brown, 

 rather thin, leathery-brittle, the sutures faintly marked, tardily 

 3-valved. Seed with equal plano-convex cotyledons, furrowed on 

 outer surface, and a blunt radicle. The fruit is ripe in October. It 

 is extremely like those of some species of Stemonoporus, but the 

 latter have the sepals entirely reflexed. 



Balanocarpus zeylanicus, n. sp. I have succeeded in 

 obtaining the fruit of the plant from Doluwe Kande, described in 

 my former paper [1. c, 205) under Thwaites' MS. name of Shorea 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 27. [June, 1889.] m 



