66 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



short-stemmed fleshy herb, creeping and rooting below, afterwards 

 erect ; branches flexuose, more or less crispately pilose. Leaves 

 alternate, ovate or oblong-ovate, blunt or very shortly acuminate at 

 apex, usually cuneately narrowed below and partly decurrent, some- 

 times slightly excised on one side ; 4 to 10 in. long, 2 to 6 in. broad, 

 entire or faintly dentate, margin often recurved, fleshy, glabrous or 

 slightly rough above, crispately pilose and pale beneath ; midrib very 

 thick, sometimes slightly to one side, main-nerves about 4 pair, arched 

 upwards and again branched ; petiole thick, 2 to 3 in. long, crispately 

 pilose. Inflorescence a short, 1 to 2 in. long, scorpioid, very shortly 

 peduncled spike, with 2-ranked flowers between ovate obtuse bracts, 

 axillary either singly or in pairs from the axils of upper leaves, or 

 lateral below them ; flowers white with a yellow centre, bracteole 

 wanting. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, ovoid, villous without ; lobes 

 5, ovate obtuse, unequal in size, '15 to -2 in. long, 3-nerved. Corolla 

 campanulate, tube short ; lobes 5 spreading and recurved, marcescent, 

 glabrous. Stamens free, -05 to -1 long, recurved; anthers linear; 

 filaments narrowly winged. Ovary turbinate, 3-celled ; ovules many 

 immersed in fleshy axile placentas ; style short, stigma conical, 

 obscurely lobed. Fruit a berry, apparently indehiscent ; seeds very 

 many, ellipsoid, papillose-reticulate. 



Peeak : Scortechini 336 ; Wray 352, 389 ; King's Collector 958, 

 2653, Pahang : Bidley. Dense forest undergrowth in the hills at 

 2,000-4,000 feet, in moist places. 



Vae. parvifolia, King & Gamble, a smaller more erect plant, scarcely 

 more than 6 in. high; much less villous, the leaves smaller, oblong, 

 obtuse or slightly acute, 4 in. long and 2 in. broad ; the inflorescence 

 shorter and the flowers smaller. 



Pahang, at Salian Eiver : Bidley. Singapobe, at Bukit Timah : 

 Bidley. 



Var. flocculosa, King & Gamble, leaves ovate rotundate, thick, 

 younger ones densely clothed beneath with crispate villous felt, margins 

 recurved ; the main-nerves rarely more than two pairs, all starting from 

 close to the base. Inflorescence short, much curved, usually supported 

 by a pair of rounded reduced leaves. Corolla-lobes prominently recurved. 

 Anthers oblong, cells often divaricate. 



Peeak : Scortechini. Johore, at Goonong Pulai, 1,800 feet : G. King. 



This species is a very variable one, and some forms almost run into P. begonia- 

 folium. Owing to the calyx and corolla being persistent and more or less marcescent, 

 they vary much in size in different flowers on the same plant, and it is difficult to find 

 characters for the varieties, one or both of which may eventually prove to be separate 

 species. 



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