v^ 



14 ON AN ASIATIC CENTROLEPIS. 



and drawings, of those ho judged of chiefest interest. During two most 

 pleasant days spent with M. Pierre, and in which he showed me all 

 the plants still unpacked it was possible to look through, most liberally- 

 pressing on me specimens of those which appeared to me remarkable 

 or new, we had much conversation on the flora of the country, and 

 my host expressed an opinion that it would not be found to yield any- 

 large amount of novelty. I was obliged to dissent from this view, and 

 the slight opportunities I have since enjoyed of examining the plants 

 I brought away -with me serve entirely to confirm my opinion, a con- 

 clusion to which, moreover, tlie many new species detected in Malacca 

 hy the late Dr. Maingay would have led me independently. The flora 

 in general character is that of Tenasserim and the Malayan peninsula 

 and archipelago ; but it is certain that a considerable proportion of the 

 species have not as yet been found, or at any rate described as occur- 

 ring there. I have quite recently been enabled to characterise in the 

 pages of this Journal* three new Oaks from Cambodia, obtained by M. 

 Pierre ; and I trust, if leisure is granted, to be able hereafter to enu- 

 merate some others of the most interesting or novel of the plants I 

 owe to his liberality. 



Among those w^hich more especially arrested my attention was the 

 Centrolepis of which I subjoin a diagnosis. The small genus to which 

 it belongs comprises a dozen species or thereabouts, none of which 

 had heretofore been detected beyond the Australian continent. Some- 

 what similar instances are furnished by Stylidium tiliginosum, Sw., 

 with one exception the sole Asiatic species in a genus comprising 

 eighty-five; by Calogyne chinensis, Benth., detected by me some years 

 ago at Amoy ; and by the Hongkong 'Thysanotas chinensis, Benth. : but 

 in all these cases the extra-Australian species are met with in the 

 extreme S.E. corner of Asia, whereas the new Centrolepis was dis- 

 covered between six and seven hundred miles further to the west. 

 However, Stylidium tenellum, Sw., is a parallel instance. It is worthy 

 of notice that in each case the nearest allies of the Asiatic plants are 

 natives of Northern and Eastern Australia. 



^ Centkolepis cambobiana, sp. nov. — Dense caaspitosa, radicibus 

 ■fibrosis, scapis teretibus strictis inferne pilosis 3-8 poll, longis, foliis 

 Bctaceis longe pilosis basique pilis longis articulatis dense lanosis scapo 

 fere duplo brevioribus, spatliis a^qualibus inferiore culraum continuante 

 rigida superiore brevissime pedicellata basi articulata mobili ovalibus 

 longitudiualiter nei'vosis pilosis (pilis omnium partium iis foliorum 

 basium cxceptis e tuberculo ortis) margine albido ciliatis acutiusculis 

 3 lin. longis, receptaculo nudo, fioribus 20-25, glumis 2 a3(jualibus 

 oblongis scariosis albis apice denticulato-ciliatis 3 lin. longis, ovariis 

 6-8 vix semilinealibus, stylis basi distinctis sesquilinealibus stigmati- 

 bus simplicibus, semine ovoideo crebre verticaliter sulcato bruiineo. 



In ipso cacumine nudo montis Kam chai, prov. Kam pot, Cam- 

 bodia), juxta fines Siamenses, alt. circ. 2900 ped., coll. cl. L. Pierre. 



To judge from the insufficient character given — I have not seen 

 the plant itself — a very near ally of this interesting species is C. 

 exserta, Roem. & Schult., from Eastern Tropical Australia. I regret 

 not having been able to consult the revision of the Order by Hierony- 

 mus, in the Halle Natural History Society's Transactions for 1873. 



* Joura. Bot., 187.'>, pp. 361—372. 



