108 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



Pekak; Lamfc, Goping, etc. Z'inis^Z^r 4028 ! 4149 ! 4504 ! 8551 ! 

 Scortechini 110! MALACCA; Griffith 1774! SiNGAroRE ; Ridley! Distrib. 

 Tenasserim ; Borneo. 



Var. ? aptera ; pod 1 in. wide, wingless ; leaflets with lateral veins 

 stronger beneath. 



Malacca: Maingay 613! Perak ; Kunstler 4518! 6428! 



Var. ? millettioides ; pod and leaflets as m var. ? aptera but the 

 former usually longer and ultimately dehiscing (as in Millettia) along 

 both sutures. 



Perak ; Ulu Bubong, Kunstler 10696 ! 



The plant here described as Derris malaccensis is extremely closely related to 

 D. cuneifolia of which indeed it was treated by Mr. Bentham as a variety. Its 

 leaves differ mainly in having fewer but larger leaflets with long caiidate-acuminate 

 tips ; the flowers, too, are considerably larger and of a somewhat different colour : 

 the pods of D. malaccensis are also much lai'gcr than those of D. cuneifolia. It 

 must also, from the description of that plant, be very nearly allied to D. montana 

 Benth. (PI. Jiingh. 253) a Java species not represented iti Herb. Calcutta. The 

 foliage of the two is evidently almost identical but the flowers are a little larger in 

 D. montana, being "75 in. long. D. malaccensis is thus evidently intermediate be- 

 tween D. cuneifolia and D. montana as regards its petals ; it is likewise intermediate 

 as regards ovary. Mr. Bentham ascribes two ovules to D. cuneifolia and this is 

 almost always the case; in one or two flowers, however, three ovnles liave been 

 found ; Mr. Baker indeed says that the pod of D. cwneifolia may bo 3-seeded, — this 

 no Calcutta specimen shows. To D. montana Mr. Bentham ascribes "about 8 

 ovules ; " D. malaccensis has had, in almost every flower examined, 4 ovules and in 

 some pods it has 4 seeds ; one or two ovaries with 5 ovules have been met with> 

 but never more than 5 have been seen. 



The plants named var. ? aptera and var. ? millettioides are placed here merely 

 for convenience of reference. They are both reported in fruit only, and as they 

 have almost exactly the leaves of Derris onalaccensis ifc seems better for the present 

 to refer to them under that species. As regards var. ? aptera indeed this is the 

 more essential since two gatherings from Perak {Wray 2025! Ktmstler 3190!), and 

 one from Penang (Curtis 2735!) have pods intermediate between those of var.? 

 aptera and those of D. malaccensis. The pods of vAU. ? aptera are, however, 

 obviously those of a Pongamia rather than those of a Dei'ris, if Ponganiia be 

 really entitled to a separate generic position, which the writer hardly believes. 

 The distinguishing character is a quite artiflcial and, as these very plants show, a 

 somewhat inadequate one. 



The existence of var ? millettioides raises an even more troublesome question, 

 the relationship of Millettia to Derris. The arrangement adopted in the Genera 

 Pla-itarum, the Histoire des Plantes and the Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien places 

 Derris and Pongnmia among the Balhergiex and Millettia among the Galegex. This 

 then, considering the gi'eat authority of the authors who have sanctioned it, must 

 be accepted as the most natural arrangement possible. That a more inconvent' 

 ent one could hardly be devised has, however, been the experience of most field 

 botanists and of most authors who have had to deal with the species belonging to the 

 genera. For these genera aj-e so closely allied that they only differ, and that merely 



108 



