124 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Teninstda. 



Penaug ; Wallich, Curtis. Malacca ; Griffith. Perak ; Kiug's Col- 

 lector, Wray. 



17. ^MiQUELiA, Meissner. 



Climbing shrubs, the wood with large vessels. Leaves alternate, 

 simple, entire or dentate, petiolate, penni-nerved. Flowers dioecious, the 

 males pedicellate and in clustered umbels, the females sessile and in 

 Solitary capitula. Male flowers each on a long pedicel with a wliorl 

 of minute bracteoles at its base. Perianth 5-merous, the pieces oblong 

 or lanceolate, free or united at the base, valvate. Stamens equnl to the 

 pieces of the perianth and alternate with them ; filaments short, anthers 

 linear-oblong, 2-celled, introrse, disk 0. Rudimentary pistil small. 

 Female floivers; — bracteoles as in the male, sometimes united by their 

 bases. Floivers sessile, the perianth deeply divided into 4 fleshy lanceo- 

 late reflexed segments. Dish none. Ovary solitary, compressed, crowned 

 by the large discoid stigma, 1- celled, with 2 pendulous collateral ovules, 

 raphe dorsal, radicle superior. Drupe oblong, more or less compressed, 

 the calyx persistent at its base, the mesocarp thin ; the endocarp crus- 

 taceous, rugose externally, often verrucose internally. Seed suspended, 

 solitary, with thin testa, albumen fleshy rugulose, radicle superior; 

 cotyledons elliptic, thick, leafy. Species about 5 Indian and Malayan. 



1. MiQUELiA CAUDATA, King, n. sp. A slender climber 10 to 20 feet 

 long ; branches thin, pale, striate. Leaves membranous, oblong-lanceo- 

 late, shortly acuminate, the base narrowed; upper surface glabrous, the 

 lower puberulous especially on the midrib and 5 or 6 pairs of spread- 

 ing, curving, ascending or spreading main nerves; length 6 to 8 in., 

 breadth 1"5 to 2 in., petiole "5 to 65 in. Umbels of male flowers "65 to 

 1 in. long, in fascicles from pilo.'je tubercles on the stem, axillary or 

 extra-axillary. Bracteoles of involucel of each floicer 4 or 5, free or 

 united at the base, lanceolate, pilose. Pedicels of flower '15 to '2 in. 

 long, pubescent. Floivers '15 in. in diam., the segments of the peri- 

 anth spreading, puberulous; filaments shorter than the linear-oblong 

 6ao"ittate anthers. Rudimentary ovary minute, hirsute. Capitules of 

 female flowers "25 in. long, ovoid, solitary, axillary ; their peduncles 2 to 

 2o in. long, puberulous. Flowers sessile, '15 in. in diam. ; perianth 

 leathei^y, glabrous. Ovary tomentose ; the stigma discoid, depressed 

 in the centre, wider than the ovary, glabrous. Drupe broadly ovoid, 

 slightly compressed, I'ounded and broad at the base, tapering upwards 

 into a long terminal tail crowned by the pei'sistent stigma ; epicarp 

 thin, rusty-pubescent on the surface ; endocarp bony, rough, and pitted 

 on the outer surface, smooth and tubercled on the inner; length from 

 base to apex 1 to 125 in., breadth at base "6 in. 



612 



