Materials for a Flvra of the Malayan Peninsula. 267 



is fleshy and esculent. When therefore Bentham and, following him, Miqnel describe 

 the seeds of their Pithecolohium lohatum, for which they cite both of Roxburgh's 

 names, as enveloped in edible pulp, they give a character derived from Roxburgh's 

 description of M. Koeringa only. 



On Burmese specimens Sir D. Brandis has noted " fruit sold ; " Gallatly 



says "edible common in the bazars-," Kurz has said nothing about the fruits 



or seeds and has not described the latter ; Baker too has refrained from describing 

 them. Hasskarl in describing the use of the fruits does not say whether it is the 

 pod or the seed that is employed; he does say that the pulp of the seed dis- 

 appears when the fimit is ripe ! * Koorders and Valeton say that the foetid 

 seeds are eaten coolced. Watt in the Dictionary of the Economic Products of India only 

 quotes Roxburgh. What the actual facts maybe it is for Malayan botanists to 

 declare. Is it the succulent pod, a fleshy pulp, or the seed itself of Jiring that 

 is eaten ? And has Jiring any pulp at all ? If so, is this pulp an arillus ? 



Roxburgh, though he laboured under the double disadvantage of working in the 

 East, and of dealing largely with living plants, was nevertheless remarkably given 

 to being accurate ; in spite of the fact that systematists in Europe, whose labours 

 have been simplified by being confined to dried specimens, propose to unite the two, 

 the writer thinks it should be left an open question whether there may not be a 

 Pithecolohium Koeringa whose seeds have an edible pulp, and a Pithecolohium 

 Jiringa without a pulp enveloping the seeds. If this be so, these are the names 

 tliat should be used to designate the two trees, since the name P. lohatum, though the 

 best to employ so long as the point is in dubiety, must obviously be discarded should 

 it be found that Roxburgh was right. 



5. PiTHECOLOBiUM NICOBARICUM Prain. A small tree with slender 

 glabrous zig-zag brancLlets with dark greenish-brown bark. Leaves 

 evenly 2-pinnate ; rachis "75 in. long, glabrous, with a gland just above 

 the middle but none at base or between the 1 -jugate pinnse ; rachises 

 of pinnae 1*5-2 in. long, glabrous, glandless ; leaflets 2- (very rarely 3-) 

 jugate, ovate-lanceolate, gradually tapering to the acute apex and cune- 

 ate base, bright-green, glabrous on both surfaces, shining above, duller 

 beneath, distal pair 3-4 in. long, 1*4-1 -8 in. wide, others 1-2*5 in. 

 long, -5-1*25 in. wide ; petiolules distinct, glabrous, -1 in. long. Flowers 

 in small few-fld. heads on puberulous pedicels '25 in. long, in terminal 

 and axillary racemes *75-2 in. long. Calyx pubescent, campanulate, -05 

 in. long, teeth deltoid, small. Corolla and^ stamens not seen. Pod 

 dehiscent along lower suture, 5-6 in. long, '75 iu, wide, spirally twisted, 

 valves thickly coriaceous, glabrous, dull, purplish -red, sinuate between 

 the seeds along the upper margin. Seeds 8-10, orbicular-ovate, some- 

 what compressed, '6 in. long, -5 in. wide, *25 in. thick, testa thin, crus- 

 taceous, dark-purple smooth shining; arillus absent. Alhizzia huhalina 

 (^Pithecolohium huhalimtm) Kurz, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XLV, 2. 129 not 

 of Benth. Pithecolohium oppositum Kurz, loc. cit., not of Miq. 



* There is no pulp visible in any of our specimens at Calcutta in any stage of 

 the pod, whether the specimens come from Burma, the Malay Peninsula, or the 

 Archipelago. 



267 



