Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 125 



Perak ; Scortechini, King's Collector. 



This species is closely allied to M. Kleinii, which is a common 

 plant in the forests at the base of the Assam Hill Ranges. This differs 

 from M. Kleinii chiefly in its fruit having a long apical tail which is 

 quite absent in tlie former. The male flowers also differ in the two 

 species. The genus Miquelia was founded by Meissner (Plant, Vase. 

 Genera) ; but Griffith, over-looking Meissner's description, published M. 

 Kleinii under the name Jenkinsia Assamica, in 1844, in the Calcutta 

 Journal of Natural History, Vol. 4. 231, t. 12. A description and figure 

 of the female flowers are to be found in the same author's Notulse, 370 ; 

 and a figure in his Icones, t. 537, fig. 2. Wallich issued the Assam plant 

 as No. 6760 of his Catalogue under the name Zanonia ? oblonga, 



18. Sarcostigma, W. and Arn. 



Climbing shrubs. Wood without zones. Leaves alternate, simple, 

 shortly petioled, much reticulate Flowers dioecious, minute, arranged 

 in glomeruli along a long pendulous rachis. Male fl. : Calyx minute, 

 cupular, 4-5 lobed. Petals 5, free, or nearly so, valvate, oblong, ultimately 

 reflexed. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, free, or adnate to the 

 base of the petals, filaments glabrous ; anthers ovate, sagittate, erect, 

 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Pistil rudimentary. Female fl. : 

 Calyx and corolla as in the male, but shorter and more fleshy. Staminodes 

 4-5, hypogynous, alternate with the petals. Ovary superior, sessile, 

 ] -celled; stigma sub-sessile, discoid or umbonate; outtZes 2, collateral, 

 pendulous, funicle thick. Drupe oblong, more or less compressed, sur- 

 rounded at the base by the persistent calyx and corolla ; epicarp coria- 

 ceous ; endocarp woody, lined with a thin white membrane. Seed 

 (according to Baillon) pendulous, exalbuminous ; cotyledons flesliy, 

 wrapping I'ound the short superior radicle. — Distrib. Species 3 or 4, all 

 tropical Asiatic. 



Sarcostigma Wallichii, H. Brongn, in Adansonia, X, 282. A power- 

 ful climber ; young branches pale, puberulous at first, afterwards gla- 

 brous like all the other parts except the inflorescence and fruit. Leaves 

 coriaceous, shining, much reticulate, oblong to broadly ovate, acute, the 

 base narrowed, under surface sometimes sparsely pubescent; main nerves 

 5 to 7 pairs, much curved, ascending ; length 4 to 7 in., breadth 15 to 

 4"5 in., petiole "4 to "6 in. Spikes of male flowers axillary or extra-axil- 

 lary, solitary or in fascicles, often nearly as long as the leaves, softly 

 rufous-tomentose ; flowers '1 to *35 in. long, sessile. Calyx a membra- 

 nous, obscurely-toothed cup, rufous pubescent outside, glabrous inside. 

 Petals about four times as long as the calyx, lanceolate, spreading, 

 slightl}'^ united at the base, the apices inflexed, pubescent outside, gla- 



613 



