1 32 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Feninsula. 



fleshy gi^anular albumen, and small conical embryo. — Distrib. A single 

 Malayan species. 



Cardiopteris lobata, Wall. Cat. 8033 A, and in Benn. PI. Jav. 

 Rar. 246, t. 49. Stems twining, terete, striate, pale when dry. 

 Leaves membranous, ovate-cordate, acuminate, more or less lobed, 

 glabrous ; main nerves 7 to 9, radiating from the apex of the petiole ; 

 length 2"25 to 5 in., breadth 1'5 to 275 in., petiole 2 to 5 in. long. 

 Panicles 2 to 4 in. long, solitary, axillary, on long peduncles with 

 a few long slender recurved few-flowered branches. Flowers distant, "1 

 in. long, on short puberulous pedicels. Calyx puberulous ; corolla slight- 

 ly longer than the calyx, pale. Anthers emarginate. Fruit '8 to 1"25 

 in. long, by '6 to '8 in. broad, the calyx persistent and very slightly 

 accrescent. /Seeti sub-cylindric, compressed: Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. I, Pt. 1, 

 799. H. Brongn. in Adansonia, X, 280 : Baillon in DC. Prod. XVII, 

 26. C. moluccana, Blume, Rumphia, IV, 207. t. 177, f. 2. C. javanica, 

 Blume 1. c. Ill, 206, IV, t. 177. Peripterygiiim quitiquelobum, Hassk. 

 Cat. PI. Hort. Bogor. 351. Olus sanguinis, Ruraph. Herb. Amb. V, t. 

 482. 



Perak : King's Collector. — Distrib. British India, Siam, Malayan 

 Archipelago, New Guinea. 



A widely distributed plant, varying considerably as to the form of 

 its leaves. On these diversities of shape, four varieties have been 

 founded. 



The position of Cardiopteris has given rise to considerable discus- 

 sion. Robert Bi-own was the first to suggest its affinity to Phytocrene 

 and lodes. By Wallich (its original founder) the genus was placed in 

 Sapindaceas ; Hasskarl placed it in Euphorbiacese ; and Blume regard- 

 ed it as forming a separate family near Boragineae and Verhenacese. 

 There is no doubt that the gamopetalous character of the corolla and 

 the absence of a disk are characters at variance with those of the majo- 

 rity of the species which are grouped in the family of Olacinese; but 

 the ovulation and structure of the fruit of Cardiopteris are quite un- 

 like those of either of the gamopetalous families suggested as allies by 

 Blume. The single character which, in my opinion, suggests a relation- 

 ship with Euphorbiacese is the milky nature of the juice. The stamens 

 and ovary, as Brown pointed out, are essentially those of lodes, from which 

 genus however this differs in calyx and in fruit. The genus with which, 

 as it appears to me, there is by far the closest relationship is Pteleocarpa, 

 Oliver. In fact the only characters which separate Pteleocarpa from. 

 Cardiopteris are that Pteleocarpa is a tree, while Cardiopteris is a scandent 

 milky -juiced herb ; and that Pteleocarpa has a 2-celled ovary and 2-celled 

 fruit. And even this latter distinction is to a great extent neutralised by 

 620 



