119 



Flowers in axillary or terniiual, umbellate, stalked cymes or panicles. 

 Sepals 5 valvate, thick Petals 5, membranous with a scale at the base. 

 Stamens numerous, free, inserted on the inner surface of an annular mar- 

 ginally villous sub-crenate disk ; anthers broad, shoi't, versatile, the 

 connective sub-orbicular. Ovary sessile, 2-celled, with numerous ovules 

 on axile placentas : style short, stigma expanded, papillose. Capsule 

 orbicular-reniform, much compressed at right angles to the dissepiments, 

 loculicidally 2-valved, many-seeded. Seeds sub-lenticular, with a thin 

 imperfect marginally villous arillus ; albumen fleshy ; embryo central 

 the cotyledons orbicular, foliaceous ; radicle straight. Distrib. 3 species 

 2 of which are Malayan and Polynesian. 



1. Trichospermum Kurzii, King. A ti'ee 40 to 60 feet high: bark 

 of young branches very dark-coloured, sparsely and minutely stellate- 

 pubescent when young, speedily glabrous. Leaves membranous, ovate- 

 elliptic, shortly acuminate, minutely serrate-crenate especially near the 

 apex ; the base rounded, sub-truncate, sub-cordate, boldly 3-nerved : 

 lateral nerves about 4 pairs : the transverse veins sub-horizontal, curved, 

 bold : length 4 to 6 in., breadth 2 to 3 in., petiole about "5 in. Panicles 

 solitary, axillary or terminal, stalked, cymose, 2-3-chotomous, much 

 shorter than the leaves when in flower, nearly as long when in fruit, 

 stellate-tomentose. Sepals oblong, acute, stellate-tomentose outside, 

 glabrous inside except a tuft of hairs at the base. Petals about the size 

 and shape of the sepals, glabrescent, with a fleshy scale at the base and 

 a transverse belt of long hairs above it. Ovary sessile, densely villous ; 

 style shorter than the ovary, cylindric, expanding upwards into the 

 broad papillose stigma. Capsule about "75 in. long and slightly wider, 

 emarginate at the apex and crowned by the persistent style : pericarp 

 leathery, villous and dark-coloured ; inside white, shining and glabrous : 

 placentas bi'oad, seeds sessile or shortly stalked, sub-lenticular, the long 

 hairs of the arillus forming a marginal ring. Bixagretvia nicoharica, 

 Kurz, Trim. Journ. Bot. for 1875, p. 325, t. 169. 



Nicobars : Kurz. Perak ; King's Collector, Wray. 



The genus Trichospermum was founded by Blume for his single 

 species T. Javanicum. The generic definition which I have given above 

 differs from that of Blume (Bijdr. 56), in these respects. Blume 

 describes (1) the sestivation of the sepals as imbricate ; (2) the style as 

 absent ; (3) the stigmas as two and emarginate. The definition also 

 differs from that given by Benth. & Hook. (G-. P. i. 236) inasmuch as 

 these authors describe (1) the petals as naked at the base ; (2) anthers 

 oblong ; (3) style almost none ; (4) stigma sessile, retuse ; (5) the apex 

 of the capsule produced into a .short thick leathery expansion ; (6) 

 leaves entire. 



228 



