ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 7. 1911 
XXXVIII.—STRYCHNOS IGNATII AND OTHER EAST 
INDIAN AND PHILIPPINE SPECIES OF STRYCHNOS. 
(With Plates.) 
An account of Strychnos Ignatii was published in Hooker’s 
Icones, t. 2212, April, 1892, based on material collected in Samar 
and Mindanao, Philippine Islands, by Boxall in 1891. Owing to a 
statement by the collector that there is another species of Strychnos, 
known as St. Ignatius’ bean, which is much more plentiful than the 
plant figured, and that it is the seeds of this species which are 
exported as St. Ignatius’ beans, some uncertainty exists as to the 
identity of the true Strychnos Ignatit. 
This uncertainty is increased when the description and figure 
given by Vidal* are examined, as his plant though depicted with 
large fruits and seeds is very different from Boxall’s both in floral 
and in foliage characters. . 
With the kind help of Mr. Elmer D. Merrill, Botanist of the 
Bureau of Science, Manila, numerous attempts have been made 
during the past three years to discover whether or not the plant 
collected by Boxall is the true source of St. Ignatius’ beansf and 
what may be the plant figured by Vidal. ; 
Mr. Merrill has enlisted the help of several collectors in the 
Philippine Islands, and has also forwarded all the Strychnos speci- 
mens from the Herbarium of the Bureau of Science to Kew. Mr. 
Lyon has also kindly sent over specimens and information, but 
unfortunately there still exist lacunae in our knowledge. 
he question as to the exact identity of S. Jgnati remains to 
some extent an open one owing to the collection of a specimen by 
Mr. Guerrero, which has not reached England and about which 
have no medicinal use. e name has also applied to Anisosperma 
i om, p. 315, and the 
sent to Kew under 
(20866—6a.) Wt. 118—9, 1125, 9/11, D&S, 
