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pasted on one sheet of paper, three plants, numbered 1, 2 and 3. 
REICHENBACH had written there: Mihi specimina 2—3 sint tenella, 
specimen 1 nana Br tantum H.G. Re. fil.’ I completely share this 
opinion; there can be no doubt, that 2 and 3 are specimens of 
S. tenella Br, while the other specimen is the one, which served 
for Biumr’s diagnosis, as it is exactly the same as that used for the 
illustration of the habit. Only in this illustration two flowers are 
still present, whereas the specimen now possesses but a single one. 
This renders the Leiden herbarium specimen of little use for deter- 
mination, as one would at most be justified in sacrificing a part of 
it, when preparing a monograph of the order, supposing also that 
one had sufficient reason for assuming, that no new species of 
Sciaphila will be discovered, a by all means remote contingency. 
As was mentioned, the specimen of the Utrecht museum is cer- 
tainly identical with Brccari’s S. corniculata. | will now mention 
the reasons for this conclusion. Since staminodes are wanting in the 
female flowers, and the rudiments of pistils in the male flowers (which 
have three stamens), and since the style is found on the top of the 
ovary, it is clear that our plant belongs to the subgenus Hyalisma. 
Here several species are further excluded, because in the centre 
between the stamens there are no sterile organs, which, according 
to Brccart, are appendages of the staminal connectives. There then 
remain S. nana, which for the above-mentioned reasons we will 
leave out of account for the present, S. Arfakiana, in which the 
segments of the male perianth terminate in appendages, which are 
here wanting, while the style in also fixed on the ovary in another 
way than in the specimen, with which we are here concerned, and 
S. corniculata. Of the characters, given by Brccari as typical of this 
latter species, all are found in the specimens from Java. | mention 
them here in suecession. Small low plants, with somewhat strongly 
branched shoots and thick fleshy roots. Only the extreme tips of the 
shoot-branches bear flowers; of these the two or three lowest flowers 
are female, the upper ones male. The latter are present in larger 
numbers, but the uppermost generally remain buds. The perianth of 
the male flowers has six lobes and the latter are provided at their 
top with a few long fine hairs, resembling cilia; the filaments of the 
three stamens have more or less grown together. While the male 
flowers have definite, albeit short peduncles, the female flowers may 
well be deseribed as sessile in the axil of a bract. Most characteristic 
are the pistils, which, as Brccart indicated, are sigma-shaped, while the 
upper part of the ovary and the style are more or less papillar; the 
description might perhaps still leave some doubt as to the identity, 
