56 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



•5 to 15 in, long. Peduncles about as long as the petiole, few-flowered. 

 Male flowers {iide Masters) " "25 in. long, elongate, fusiform. Calyx 

 leathery, shortly 5-lobed ; lobes ovate, connivent (? always). Petals 

 thick, leathery, oblong-acute, springing from the calyx-tube just beneath 

 the throat. Corona none (?). Glands of the disc 5, small, oblong, at 

 the base of the calyx-tube, opposite to its lobes. Stamens ^\ anthers 

 sub-sessile, erect, linear ; connective long, thread-like. Uudimentary ovary 

 fusiform. Fruit 2 in. long, glabrous, fusiform." Seeds compressed, sub- 

 ovoid, obliquely contracted to a short podosperm, the centre boldly tuber- 

 cled, the edges with a row of broad grooves the tubercles between which 

 on the extreme margin are bold and some of them black. Passiflora 

 singaporeana, Wall. Cat. 1232. Modecca singaporeana, Masters in Hook. 

 fil.Fl. Br. Ind. II, 601. 



Singapore; Wallich. Johore ; King. Malacca; Maingay (K.D.) 

 667. — DisTRiB. Java. 



A species badly represented in collections and misanderstood. It is based on 

 the plant collected by Wallich at Singapore and issued by him under his Cat. No. 

 1232 and named Passiflora singaporeana. With this agree absolutely a plant collected 

 by Mr. Hullett and myself at Jaffaria (in Johore) also some specimens collected by Mr. 

 H. O. Forbes in the Preanger in Java {Herh. Forbes 565). Maingay collected at 

 Malacca six specimens of a Modecca all of which in Herb. Kew. are named M. singa- 

 poreana. In my opinion five of these belong to M. acuminata, Bl. I have seen no 

 flowers of M. singapo'eana and the account of them given above is copied verbatim 

 from Masters. The leaves are very opaque and of a dull pale colour beneath, and 

 the nerves are very faint. The fruit is slightly'shorter than that of M. acuminata, 

 Bl. of which species this is I fear little more than a form. 



Order LII. BEGONIACEI^. 



Succulent herbs or undershrubs ; stem often rliizomatous or tuber- 

 erous. Leaves alternate (sometimes falsely whorled), more or less un- 

 equal-sided, entire, toothed or lobed ; stipules 2, free, frequently deci- 

 duous. Peduncles axillary, dichotomously cymose, the branches and 

 bracts at their divisions generally opposite. Flowers white rose or 

 yellow, showy, sometimes small, monoecious. Male : perianth (of the 

 only Indian genus) of 2 outer valvate opposite sepaloid segments, and 

 2-0 inner smaller segments ; stamens indefinite often very many, free 

 or monadelphous, anthers narrowly obovoid. Female : perianth (of the 

 only Indian genus) of 5-2 segments. Ovary inferior (in Hildehrandia 

 half-superior), 2-3-4-celled ; placentas vertical, axile (at the time of 

 aestivation), divided or simple; styles 2-4, free or combined at the base, 

 stigmas branched or tortuous ; ovules very many. Fruit capsular, more 

 rarely succulent, often winged, variously dehiscing or irregularly break- 

 ing up. Seeds very many, minute, globose or narrow-cylindric, testa 



584 



