Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula, 67 



opening by slits down the front, connective spurred at the base or 

 nnappendaged. Ovary inferior, 2-5-celled, glabrous at the apex ; style 

 short, stigma capitellate ; ovules numerous, placentas axile, nearly 

 basal. Capsule finally breaking up irregularly. Seeds very many, 

 linear, raphe excurrent. — Distrib. Species 24; in Malaya and the 

 Pacific Islands. 



AsTRONiA SMiLACiFOLiA, Triaua in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXVIII, 152, 

 Young shoots, petioles, under surfaces of the young leaves and inflor- 

 escence rufous-lepidote. Leaves oblong, tapering to each end, the 

 transverse nerves stout and distant; length 3*5-5*5 in., breadth l-5-2'5 

 in. ; petiole '75-1 in. Panicle usually terminal, condensed, 1-2 in. in 

 diam. ; branches numerous, short, the pedicels shorter than the globular, 

 minutely 5-toothed calyx-tube. Petals reflexed, obovate. Fruit sub- 

 globular, truncate at the apex, '25 in. in diara. C. B. Clarke in Hook, 

 fil. Fl. Br. Ind. II, 550 ; Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. YII, 1094. Mela- 

 stoma smilacifolia, Wall. Cat. 4057. 



Penang; Wallich, Curtis. Malacca.; Main gay {K.D.) SOS. Perak ; 

 Scortechini ess ', Wr ay 281S, 



Var. lepidophyllaj Scort. MSS. Arboreous ; inflorescence, leaves on 

 the under surface and petioles (when young) densely covered with 

 deciduous scales. 



Perak; S cortechini lS7b; Kincfs Collector 1210,2021. 



This variety is desciibed by Scortechini and Kunstler as a tree 50-80 feet Ligh, 

 the typical form never being more than a large bush. 



17. Pteknaxdra, Jack. 



Large shrubs or trees, glabrous or minutely pubescent. Leaves 

 sub-coriaceous or coriaceous, opposite, short-petioled or sub-sessile, entire, 

 3-5-nerved. Flowers solitary and axillary on long peduncles, or in 

 axillary or teminal, often very short, and clustered cymes ; the pedicels 

 often 2-bracteolate. Calyx-tuhe campanulate or hemispheric, tesselate, 

 verrucose, or covered with more or less adpressed, often puberulous scales 

 the mouth truncate, often 4-toothed. Petals 4, ovate or oblong, blueish 

 or white. Stamens 8, equal in length, but the anthers of some of them 

 often imperfect, perfect anthers broad, blunt, shortly spurred behind 

 but never in front, dehiscing by slits, the filaments stout, often genicu- 

 late. Ovary inferior, 4-celled : the apex glabrous, depressed or flat ; 

 style filiform ; stigma clavate ; ovules numerous, placentas sub-basal. 

 Berry gubglobose or ovoid, truncate or surmounted by the calyx-teeth, 

 scaly or smooth. Seeds cuneate-ovoid, or obovoid, angular.— Distrib, 

 Species about 12; in Malaya and the Philippines. 



475 



