Ancistrocladus.'] AflClstrocladecs. 1 39 



A. Vahlii, Am. in Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xviii. 325 (1836). Gona- 



wel, S. (Plate XVI.) 



Wormia hamata., Vahl in Skrift. Nat. Selsk. Kjob. vi. 105. Planch, 

 in Ann. Sc. Nat. 3, xiii. 317. Thw. Enum. 188. C. P. 1600. 



Fl. B. Ind. i. 299. 



A scrambling, shrubby, sarmentose climber, with smooth, 

 shining, pale brown bark, branches short, divaricate, provided 

 with 1-4 distant, reflexed, rigid hooks (leafless petioles ?), 

 curved nearly into a ring and ultimately woody, young parts 

 glabrous ; 1. crowded at ends of branches, sessile, disarticulating 

 by a large scar, 4-7 in. or more, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 

 much attenuate at base, obtuse or acute, entire, glabrous and 

 shining, pinkish-orange when young, without stip. ; fl. few, 

 small, \ in., nearly sessile, distant on the slender, glabrous 

 branches of a lax, slightly branched, terminal (but apparently 

 axillary) panicle much shorter than the 1. ; cal.-tube 5 -angled, 

 segm. obtuse, unequal, the 2 outer shorter ; pet. oval, im- 

 bricate, twice the length of sep. ; base of fil. combined into a 

 fleshy ring adnate to base of pet. ; ov. completely inferior, 

 style articulated on a persistent, conical base, deeply 3-fid, 

 lobes spreading, toothed ; fr. indehiscent, about \ in., obconic, 

 flat-topped with a central mamilla, 5-ribbed, glabrous, shining, 

 brown, crowned by the horizontally spreading, enlarged cal.- 

 segm., which are oblong, obtuse, at first fleshy, afterwards 

 chartaceous, 3-5-veined, the 2 shorter |-| in., the 3 longer 

 i-i^ in. ; seed solitary, at first enveloped in white, spongy 

 tissue, afterwards filling whole cell, globular, testa very thin, 

 endosperm copious, fleshy, much convolute-ruminated, coty- 

 ledons short, blunt, linear. 



Forests and bushy places in moist region, up to about 2000 ft.; 

 common. Fl. March- June ; pale yellow. 



Endemic. 



The leaves on the main branches often attain 20 in. in length. 



There are specimens in Hermann's collection, but they were not dis- 

 tinguished by Linnaeus from Htigotiia Mystax. Thwaites has fully 

 described and figured the structure of the fruit and seed in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xxi. 225, t. 24. 



been meant by this name. Bi^^amea perhaps has generic priority, as 

 Wallich's Ancistrocladus was not defined. Arnott (1. c.) simply quotes 

 Vahl's description of Wor))iia hamata. 



