72 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



2. Erythrina ovalifolia Roxb. TLovi. Beng, 53. A tree 30-40 

 feet high with spreading branches, bark grey, stem l'5-2 feet diam., 

 armed with thick-based dark-brown prickles. Leaves 8-12 in, long ; 

 petioles 4-5 in. long sparse!}' prickly, when young very sparingly 

 puberulous, when full groAvn quite glabrous ; leaflets 3 subcoriaceous 

 deep green above glaucous beneath quite glabrous on both surfaces, 

 terminal ovate or ovate-oblong 4-6 in. long 2"5-3*5 in. across, lateral 

 pair similar but rather smaller, base rounded or wide-cuneate apex 

 obtuse or subacute ; petiolules *25 in. long ; stipels represented by ovate 

 persistent glands "1 in. in diam, ; stipules membranous orbicular deci- 

 duous '15 in. across. Inflorescence in lax 8-20-fld. racemes 3-6 in. long 

 on stout spreading peduncles 5-8 in. long ; flower 1-3 in axils of small 

 broadly ovate deciduous puberulous bracts ; pedicels puberulous '3 in. 

 long with similar but smaller bracteoles at base of calyx. Buds narrow- 

 ly ovate, puberulous. Calyx 'h in. long, '6 in. wide deeply 2-lobed. 

 Corolla 2 in. long dark velvety-brown with deep scarlet tinge, standard 

 1'5 in. wide emarginate, wings "75 in., keel-petals coherent 1 in. long. 

 Ovarij softly grey-puberulous, stalked. Pod 6-8 in. long 6-8-seeded on 

 a stalk "5 in. long, pale-brown puberulous, valves more distinctly dehis- 

 cing by the sutures ; seeds subreniform '5 in. long, "3 in. wide, testa 

 brown, hilum large oval. Roxb. Flor. Ind. Ill, 254 ; Wall. Cat. 5961 ; 

 Wight Ic. t. 247 ; Benth. PL Jnngh. 237 ; Miq, Flor. Ind, Bat. I, 207 ; 

 Bak. in Flor. Brit. Ind. II. 189. J57. holosericea Kurz, Journ. As. So3. 

 Beng. XLII, pt. 2, 69 as to flowers. Duchassaingia ovalifolia Walp. in 

 Linn^a XXIII, 742. 



Perax; Kinta, Kunstler 7215! Malacca; Maingay 528! Dis- 

 TRiB. S.-E, Asia, from Assam and Bengal to the Malay Archipelago 

 and Polynesia. 



Mr. Kurz's Erythrina holosericea {Corallodendron holosericeum 0. Kuntze, Rev. 

 Gen. PL I, 172) is a spurious species manufactured by combining in one diagnosis a 

 descx'iption of the flowers of E. ovalifolia and of the leaves of E. lithosperma ; 

 the melange had been sent to Herb. Calcutta by an ofl&cer of the Indian Forest 

 Department under the idea that it came from one tree. The citation of this 

 species by Kuntze (Zoc. cit.) while that author is taking the opportunity to 

 (as the writer thinks) unnecessarily restoi-e an obsolete generic name, might lead to 

 the conclusion that Kuntze had made an effort to verify the validity of the 

 Kurzian species, as to the existence of which Mr. Baker had already expressed a 

 doubt {Flora of British India II, 190). It is obvious, however, that Kuntze has 

 done nothing of the kind and it would seem from this citation that the object of 

 much of the houleversement effected by priority-hunting " botanists " is less the 

 restoration of generic names that have been improperly suppressed than a search 

 for opportunities of posing as the authorities for species of whose characters they 

 are ignorant. 



In the Herbarium of Mr. Curtis, of the Peuang Forest Department, is a solitary 



72 



