197 
XXVII.—MACROZANONIA MACROCARPA. 
R. A. Rote. 
Two beautiful winged seeds have been sent to Kew for deter- 
mination from the Bota anic Gardens, Brisbane, by Mr. C. T. 
White, Government Botanist. One is from a sample obtained by 
Mr. M. J. Colelough in the Aru Islands, and it is said that they 
are often picked up on schooners’ decks at sea, and when seen in 
the air have a butterfly-like appearance. The other is from speci- 
mens collected by the late Captain F. R. Barton, private secretary 
to the Lieut. ~Governor of N ew Guinea. These were : ae 
belong.” Mr. White adds: “*I have also seen the same thing 
n 
are identical, and are por pre erties They viii on 
comparison to belong to the plant described by Blume as long 
ago as 1825, from Javan materials, under the name of Zanonia 
macrocarpa, Blume, which has since been separated from Zan- 
onia by Cogniaux, under the name of Macrozanonia macrocarpa. 
As it proves to be of wide distribution, though still very imper- 
fectly known, the following account of its history should prove 
interesting. 
The plant was originally very briefly described by Blume, in 
1825, under the name of Zanonia macrocarpa, from fruiting 
materials found on Mt. Parang, Java. The author gave the 
In 1843 the eat appolatt under the name of Alsomitra macro- 
carpa, Blume, a mistake for Roemer. The latter author estab- 
lished a genus Alsomitra, Blume (also a mistake), noche in it 
Zanonia section Alsomitra, Z. macrocarpa (bot ongly attri- 
buted to De Candolle), and seven other species which are evidently 
not immediately allied to Z. macrocarpa. He did not define the 
enus in any way, and its heterogenous character was subsequently 
recognised by the authors of the Genera Plantarum, who exclu 
Alsomitra macrocarpa, Roem., as a foreign element, and gave to 
the remainder clear generic definition, an arrangement which has 
since been generally accepted. 
In 1881 Cogniaux was able to give further details of Z. 
macrocarpa, including its fruit and seeds, though flowers were 
still lacking, and he then established the sectional name 
