NOTE ON SAMARA POLYGAMA 217 



species have hitherto remained uncertain, the chief objection, 

 besides our ignorance in the matter of the placentation, to their 

 inclusion in the genus Samara (i. e. Embelia) having to do with 

 their alleged possession of opposite leaves. S. paniculata, the 

 former of the two, is a native of India, and A. De Candolle (Prod, 

 viii. p. 139) regards it as a doubtful Ardisia {A. ? paniculata 

 A. DC.), at the same time reproducing Roxburgh's short diagnosis. 

 In the Flora of British India, curiously enough, we find no 

 mention of it. Mez, the latest monographer of the Myrsinacece 

 (Pflanzenfam. 9 heft. (iv. 236), p. 154), places it at the end of 

 Ardisiaindb short list of "species omnino obscurae," with the note 

 " Anne Embelia? vel potius ex ordine excludenda." 



Bearing in mind the .close relations at the beginning of last 

 century between the Calcutta Botanic Garden and the British 

 Museum, there is always a possibility that doubts about a plant 

 of Roxburgh's may be settled by consulting the National 

 Herbarium. In the case of S. paniculata, unfortunately, I have 

 failed to find a Roxburgh specimen, but of the second species 

 S. polygama Roxb., a native of the Moluccas, the Museum has a 

 specimen answering the description and accompanied by a label 

 in Roxburgh's handwriting. This second species A. De Candolle 

 regarded as an Ardisia (A. polygama A. DC. 1. c. p. 138) ; by Mez 

 (I. c.) it is treated precisely as the other. 



The specimen now to be noticed (Roxburgh, No. 2603 in Herb. 

 Mus. Brit.) is nearly 40 cm. long and consists of a branched 

 woody stem nearly 4 mm. in diameter below and less than 2 mm. 

 near the top, surrounded by a reddish-brown cortex. The 

 branches, of which there are several pairs, are short, patent, leafy 

 and strictly opposite. The leaves, also strictly opposite, are 

 lanceolate, caudate-attenuate from near the end with an obtuse 

 tip, thinly coriaceous with upwards of a dozen pairs of nerves 

 rather prominent below (alternately inserted upon the midrib) in 

 either half, mostly 7-10 cm. long and 2-3 cm. broad, smooth, 

 palely shining, grey-green above and brown below ; petioles 

 + 5 mm. long. Flowers small, in apparently short axillary 

 cymes (no complete inflorescence is to hand), drying black. 

 Calyx 4-lobed, with ovate, obtuse, | mm. long lobes. Petals 4, 

 free, broadly oblong, concave on the inner face, 1-75 mm. long. 

 Stamens 4, at the base of the petals ; anthers extrorse, oblong, 

 ^ mm. in length, the connective not produced. Ovary of the 

 flower examined apparently rudimentary. 



The specimen has but two flowers, of which one was examined 

 with the above result. But incomplete as it is in some respects, 

 one is driven to the conclusion that it belongs without doubt to 

 the Oleacece, all its characters so far ascertained being those of a 

 tetrandrous Linociera : as L. polygama, therefore, it will be found 

 at the Museum. Though very like several other species of 

 Linociera, I have sought in vain to match it either at the 

 Museum or at the Kew Herbarium: in general appearance it 

 greatly resembles the Indian L. purpurea Vahl. 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 51. [July, 1913.] s 



