Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 117 



4- t© 8-flowered. Floxoers diceceous, pedicelled. Sepals 4, reniform, 

 tomentose internally. Male flower with a circle of glands outside the 

 numerous stamens ; pistil none. Female flower with a sub-entii-e flattish 

 fleshy disc at the base of tlie f<lobular glabrous ovary ; s/yZes 6 to 8, 

 distinct to their bases, stout, spreading; stigmas discoid with a mesial 

 groove. Fruit sub-globular, '5 to "75 in. long, its pericarp succulent, 

 when dry 6-8-ridged ; Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Lid. I, 192; Clos in Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 Ser. iv. Vol. 8, p. 216 ; Miq. FI. Ind. Bat. I, Pt. 2, 104. F. cataphrada, 

 Bl. (not of Roxb.) Bijdr. 55, (probably). 



Perak. Common at low elevations. Malacca, GriflBth. Distrib. 

 Burmah, Sumatra and the Malayan Ai'chipelago generally ; Philippines. 



This species is badly repi'esented in collections and is not well under- 

 stood, all published descriptions of it being very brief. Cloa diagnoses 

 it by its having 5 sepals ; but I do not find that this character holds at 

 all. It approaches F. inermis, Roxb. very closely in foliage and fruit. 

 According to Roxburgh, who originally descz'ibed F. inermis from plants 

 from the Moluccas cultivated at Calcutta, its flowers are hermaphrodite ; 

 and in that respect they differ from those of the other species of the genus. 

 The only authentic specimens of F. inermis which I have seen were 

 cultivated in the Bot. Garden, Calcutta, and these are undoubtedly her- 

 maphrodite. The styles are moreover very short and united, and the 5 

 stigmas form a radiating star on the apex of the ovary, each stigma being 

 cuneate-emarginate. The stigmas of F. Rukam are quite different ; in- 

 asmuch as they are discoid and the styles are distinct to the very base. 

 Forbes's Sumatra specimens No. 1206* appear to belong to inermis, 

 and they are the only uncultivated ones which I have seen. The fruit of 

 Bukam as well as of inermis is eatable, although sour. I have not seen 

 an authentic specimen of Blume's F. cataphracta ; but I can readily believe 

 that it is F. BuTcam, which is a common Malayan plant. Theplants issued 

 as Wall. Cat. 6673 belong (as regards many of the sheets) in my 

 opinion to this, and not to F. inermis, Roxb. 



2. Flacodrtia Cataphracta, Roxb. in Willd. Sp. PI. iv. 830; Cor. 

 PI. iii. t. 222 ; Fl Ind. iii. 884. A small tree, often thorny when young. 

 Branchlets glabrous, lenticellate. Leaves membranous, oblong or ob- 

 long-lanceolate, bluntly acuminate (the older sometimes blunt) obscurely 

 crenate-serrate, narrowed to the base ; both surfaces glabrous, sliiniutr ; 

 the 3-4 pairs of nerves thin, sub-erect ; the I'eticulations minute ; length 

 3 to 4 in., breadth 1"25 in., petiole "3 in. Flowers in axillary racemes 

 shorter than the leaves, small, ("15 in. diam. ) ; ovary flask-shaped ; 

 stigmas 4-6, capitate. Fruit the size of an olive, purple. Hook. fil. Fl. 

 Br. Ind. I, 193; Clos in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. IV, Vol. 8, p. 216 (not of 

 Roth, Blnmu, or Dalzellj. F. Jangomas, Gmel. Syst. ; Miq. Fl. Ind. 



57 



