Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 119 



cleared up through the kindness of Dr. J. V. Suringar. Both Mr, Bentham and 

 Mr. Baker have suggested that it may be the same as D. paeudo-sissoo Miq. and in 

 response to a request made by Dr. King that some Malayan specimens from Calcutta, 

 which are undoubtedly conspecific with the Ceylon plant, might be compared with 

 the Miquelian types at Leiden, Dr. Sui'ingar has not only made the necessary com- 

 parisons but has sent to Calcutta examples of some of the authentic specimens and 

 Tery careful drawings of others. These leave no doubt whatever as to the identity 

 of the two plants named D. pseudo-sissoo and D, Championii. One curious feature 

 has been noticed in this examination by Dr, Suringar and by the writer. In Ceylon 

 (as Mr. Bentham found) and in Penang the ovaries appear to be always 1-ovuled; 

 in Perak, Singapore and Borneo they are oftener 2-ovuled than 1-ovuled in the 

 proportion of 7 to 3 ; in Java they are nearly always 2-ovuled, nine ovaries having 

 2 ovules for one ovary with 1 ovule, A still more interesting discovery made by Dr. 

 Suringar is that D. Sissoo Miq. is not D. Sissoo. Koxb. (this no one who considers 

 what the native habitat of D. Sissoo is, will be surprised to learn), but that it is (what 

 was hardly to be expected) Dr. Miquel's own D. pseudo-sissoo. Dr. Suringar, in con- 

 firmation of his discovery, has sent to Calcutta an authentic specimen of D. Sissoo 

 Miq. in Herb. Leiden (not of Roxb.). This then explains the "unfortunate selec- 

 tion" of name that Mr, Bentham very justly comments upon. Dr, Suringar, 

 sharing Mr, Bentham's feeling, suggests that in view of this extraordinary confusion 

 it would be better to drop Miquel's name altogether; and the writer would very 

 gladly have adopted the suggestion and continued to use Dr. Thwaites' name D. 

 Championii, had the dictates of common-sense been of any weight in modern nomen- 

 clature. But unfortunately there is now no doubt that the plant named D, pseudo- 

 sissoohj Miquel is the same as that named D. Championii by Thwaites; it cannot be 

 gainsaid that so far as it goes, the description of D. pseudo-sissoo applies to the 

 species ; and it is clear that the name D. pseudo-sissoo has nine years' priority over the 

 name D. Championii. This being so, Miquel's name may just as well be given prece- 

 dence now, seeing that one or other of the bibliographers who pose as botanists 

 would make the alteration so soon as this note appears, in spite of the fact that 

 Miquel did not recognise his own species when he saw it, 



8, Dalbergia Hullettii Prain, A small tree with blackish 

 rugose rusty -puberulous thickisli branchlets, without leaves at time of 

 flowering. Floiuers in short, clustered .racemes, 1-1*5 in. long, springing 

 from tufts of triangular rusty-pubescent small bracts in axils of old 

 leaves ; lowest pedicels longer than the rest, slender, '3 in. long, rusty- 

 pubescent as are the pednncles ; bracteoles at base of pedicels solitary 

 ovate-lanceolate "l in, long persistent, the pair below calyx subulate 

 very small. Galyx campannlate, densely rusty-tomentose "15 in. long, 

 teeth half as long as tube, acute. Corolla S in. long, claws of petals as 

 long as calyx-tube. Stamens 9, rarely 10, monadelphous. Ovary with 

 densely pubescent stalk ; ovule solitary. Pod unknown. 



Singapore ; Hullett 626 1 



A very distinct species, only once reported. It is nearest to a Bomean tree 

 apparently as yet undescribed (ITai'tZanii n. 2894) ; the only difference between the 

 flowers of the two is tliat in the Bomean plant the ovary is densely woolly; in this 

 the ovary is quite glabrous though its stalk is pubescent. The Bomean plant has 



119 



