190 



NOTES ON MYRMECODIA. 

 By James Britten, F.L.S. 



I HAVE lately been engaged in naming the drawings made by 

 Sydney Parkinson of the plants collected during Cook's first voyage 

 (1768-1771) ; and in the course of so doing have noted several 

 points of interest which I hope later to publish in this Journal. 

 Among the drawings is one of a Myrtnecodia, which seems worthy 

 of special attention. 



Unfortunately, while I was collecting material on the subject, 

 Mr. Hemsley, to whom I am indebted for some help, by what I must 

 regard as a curious coincidence published in the Kew Bulletin a note 

 upon Myrwecodia, in which he anticipates some of the information 

 I had brought together.* As, however, this paper is mainly con- 

 cerned with Banks's plant, I do not propose to omit the history of 

 our knowledge of Myrmecodia as an Australian genus, which I had 

 drawn up before Mr. Hemsley's printed note made me aware that 

 he was working at the subject with a view to publication. 



The first recorded occurrence of any Myrmecodia in Australia 

 seems to be that by Dr. George Bennett in this Journal for 1868, 

 pp. 50-52. This, with a llydnophytinn, was brought from Cape 

 York by Captain Nares in September, 1866, and was presented by 

 him to the Botanic Gardens at Sydney. In December of the same 

 year, Mr. C. Moore of the Sydney Gardens sent specimens to Kew, 

 and a second consignment in May, 1867. Dr. (now Sir Joseph) 

 Hooker, in acknowledging these, wrote to Dr. Bennett — " Their 

 discovery in Australia is most remarkable": he speaks of the 

 Myrmecodia as M. armata, and says that it arrived at Kew alive. 

 Mr. Hemsley, however, tells me that the entry in the Gardens 

 record states that the plants were dead on arrival. 



The next record of an Australian Myrmecodia — if we except a 

 passing reference to Dr. Bennett's paper in Mueller's Fraymenta, 

 vii. 45 — is in the Systematic Census of Australian Plants (1882), 

 p. 75, where Mueller mentions M. ecldnata Gaud, as found in 

 Queensland and North Australia. Prof. Beccari, in the chrono- 

 logical arrangement of records prefixed to his admirable monograph 

 in Malesia (ii. 7-340 (1884)), thinks that in all probability this 

 plant, as well as M. armata of the earlier record, should be referred 

 to M, Antoinii (misspelt Antonii in Jackson's Index) — a species 

 from Thursday Island, Torres Straits, figured and described by 

 F. Antoine in Oesterr. Bat. Zeitschrift, xxxii. 347-353 (1882), as 

 M. echinata, but subsequently distinguished by Beccari (/,. c. 116).f 



* I am glad to note that the difficulties which rendered it "impossible to 

 assign the papers in the Bitlletiu to single individuals " have apparently been 

 overcome, as Mr. Hemsley's initials are ajipended to this article. In the interests 

 of convenience it is to be hoped that this practice may be continued (see Journ. 

 Hot. 1893, 382). 



t Since this note was written, M. Autoinii has been figured in Hot. Ma;/. 

 t. 7517 from a specimen presented to Kew Gardens by Prof. Stewart in 1893, 

 which flowered and ripened seeds in 189G. 



