Materials for a Flora of the Mithtyau Pe^iinsnla. 413 



rcnaiig : Wallich, Sfcoliczka, Oui tis, King. Joliore ; King. Por?k ; 

 King's Collector, Nos. 505, 2491. 



The specific nauio given to tins is unfoi'tunate, as it implies that 

 the plant is a large one. As a matter of fact it is a much smalloi- 

 plant than L. awjtdata, Korth. which often forms a tree 30 feet in hoiglTt ; 

 while this is usually a shrub about 20 feet high. Tliis sj^ecies has 

 however very much larger leaves and panicles than any other Leea 

 known to me. The flowers of this are bluish red: the teeth of the 

 staminal tubs I find, contrary to the observaticms of the late Mr. 

 Kurz and Mr. C. B. Clarke, to be bifid at the apex. My collengue 

 Dr. Prain, to whom I have shown diss?ctinns of flowers takon from Wall, 

 Cat. 6823B, (as well as from other Rpecim(>ns) qnite ngreos with nie 

 in this. As Mr. Clarke has remarked in his excellent Revision of the 

 Indian species of Lsea (Triinen'.s- Journ. But. for J88J, p. 100 et seq.), 

 ilie characters of the seeds of this pl:int have given rise to some dis- 

 enssion. I find them to be as above described. The lale Mr. Kurz (in 

 Joiivn. As. Soc, Beng., Vol. 42, p. 65) described them thus: ''' samiaa 

 obtuse carinata, laterihus tuhercidato-costatis, " which is a fairly riccnr.ite 

 account of them. In a later number of the same Journal, (Vol, 4t, 

 p. 178) however, he described them in these words " seeds tnbercled- 

 keeled, the edges tubercled- ribbed, " which is inaccurate. Mr. Clarke, 

 disregarding Kurz's earlier description, and not finding the seeds of 

 this species to agree with his later description, nssumed that Kurz must 

 have had another plant before him, and for this plant Mr. Clarke has 

 proposed the name (Trimen's Journ. I. c.) L. tuherculo-semeji. The very 

 specimens described by Kurz as L. giijantea, Griff, are however, in the 

 Calcutta Herbariam, and they boar that name in his own handwriting. 

 These specimens undoubtedly agree with all the sheets of Wall. Cat. 

 6823B. in the same Herbarium, which Mr. Clarke regards as true L. gigan- 

 tea. The truth probably is that the markings on the sides of the seeds 

 which Kurz described in two ways in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 society ore post mortem appearances — an explanation which is supported 

 by the facts that, in his Flora of Burma, Kurz describes them in still 

 another way a? '' bluntiah-keelcd and tuborcled-ribbed ; " and that nobody's 

 description agrees with Gi-iffith's figure ( Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 645, fig. 3) 

 which was prob.ably drawn from fresh seeds ! Dry seeds taken from 

 Herbarium .specimens moreover vary in appearance according as they 

 are examined immediately after having been boiled, or after some delay : 

 and this is no doubt the explanation of Kurz's thfcc differing dcscrip- 

 tion.s. The nearest ally of this species is undoubtedly L. i;ambucina, 

 Willd; but that species has much smaller leaves leaflets and j)anicles, 

 and it has green not red flowers. 



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