]36 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Periinsula. 



Indian Botany who have dealt with the Indian Barringtonias (Mr. C. B. Chirke in 

 Hooker's Flora of British India, and the late Dr. H. Trimen in his Flora of 

 Cevlon) adopt the view that obtained prior to the publication of Miers' paper, and 

 they believe that the three species of Agasta of the latter author are merely forms 

 of the Barringtonia sjpeciosa of Forster. If Miers' arrangement, however, is to be 

 followed, the name of the plant occurring on the coasts of the Malay Peninsula 

 and of British India would be either Agasta indica or A. asiatica according to the 

 shape of the base of the fruit. Miers says of the fruit of the form which 

 he considers alone entitled to the name Barringtonia speciosa, fructus non vidi, and 

 he relies solely on Forster's figure (Char. Gen. t. 38 B, fig. h). In his account 

 of it that figure no doubt shows a 4-celled fruit. Whether or not Forster or his 

 artist had a fully-developed fruit before him when he made the di-awing referred 

 to cannot be known. But however that may be, the characters, other than the 

 number of cells in the fruit of Forster's Barringtonia and of Miers' three Agastas 

 are practically alike, and I fail to see any good basis for the foundation on them 

 of four species belonging to two genera. 



2. Barringtonia conoibba, Griff. Notul. 656. Ic. 635, 636, fig, 1. 

 A large bush or small tree, glabrous ; young branches sub-sulcate. 

 Leaves thickly membranous, oblanceolate-elliptic or cuneate : oblong, 

 narrowed at the minutely subcordate or roanded base to the short, stout 

 petiole; the apex bbint or sub-acute; the edges obscurely crenate- 

 serrulate or subeatire ; main-nerves 9 to 13 pairs, curved, ascending ; 

 lencHh 4'5 to 10 in. ; breadth 2 to 4 iu. ; petiole 15 to '2 in. Racemes 

 suberect, lateral or terminal, few-flowered, about 4 in. long, glabrous or 

 puberulous. Flowers less tlian 1 in. lon^ and 1 in. across, on pedicels 

 •5 to '6 in. long. Galyx with a sabcylindric tube, "15 in. long ; the base 

 with 8 gibbous processes ; the limb bipartite. Petals 4, fleshy, ovate- 

 lanceolate. Stamens much exceeding the corolla. Fruit fibrous-fleshy, 

 conoid, produced at the base into 8 wing-like semi-cordate fleshy pro- 

 cesses and crowned at the apex by the calyx, 2*5 in. long and 1-75 in. 

 broad at the base. Kurz For. Flor. Burma I, 497 ; Clarke in Hook. fil. 

 Fl. Br. Ind. II, 508. B. alata, Wall. Cat. 3633. Butonica alata, Miers 

 iu Trans. Linn. Soc. Ser. II, Bot. I, 70, t. 14, figs. 10 to 15. 



Malacca: Griffith (Kew Dist. 2423). Perak : Scortechini 1385. 

 Bdrmah : Wallich. 



At once distinguished by its curious conical fruit winged at the base. 



3. Barringtonia racemosa, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 52; Fl. Br. Ind. 

 II, 634. A glabrous tree, often 50 feet high ; young branches rather 

 stout, cinereous. Leaves membranous, obloug-obovate or oblanceolate, 

 shortly acuminate, narrowed to tlie shortlj^ petiolate base, faintly cre- 

 nate-denticulate; niJiin-nerves 8 to 15 pairs, spreading or ascending, 

 thin but prominent on the lower surface when dry ; length 4 to 12 in. ; 

 breadth 2 to 4 in. ; petiole "I to "25 in. ll(icer)ies much longer than 

 the leaves, (10 to 24 in. long) from the axils of fallen leaves or terminal, 



566 



