BY F. HANSON BAILEY, F.L.S. 6 



Nucleus brown, pyriform 8 lines long, surrounded by a 

 border of same colour and consistence, 2 lines broad, which is 

 also surrounded by broad transparent wings, the whole giving a 

 horizontal di^tmeter of from 5 to 6 ins. 



Hab. None given. Capt. F. R. Barton. 



Order Euphorbiace^. 

 tribe phyllantheie, 



Baccaurea, Lour. Flora. Cochinch. ii.661. Pierardia, Roxb. 



B. papuana, Bail. 



A tree bearing its flowers and fruit upon the trunk and thick 

 branches ; branchlets, leaves, and inflorescences all when young 

 more or less puberulent. Branchlets terete, striate. Leaves 

 rather rough, clustered at the ends of the branchlets, broadly 

 ovate and bluntly acuminate, 4 to 7in. long, 2^ to 3|^in. broad, 

 tapering towards the base ; margins slightly wavy and minutely 

 glandularly toothed. Petioles slender, 1 to l^in. long, and more 

 or less thickened at each end. Male flowers not seen. Female 

 flowers in racemes on the trunks of trees, 6 to 8 in. long on 

 peduncles from 1 to 2 in. long. Bracts sharply lanceolate, about 

 1 line. Flowers crowded, pedicellate, yellow, the segments or 

 sepals coriaceous, about 3 lines long, imbricate. Ovary silky-hairy, 

 hairs nearly silvery, stigmas 3, sessile, 2-lobed, lobes broad and 

 fimbriate. Fruit (not seen quite ripe) slightly exceeding 1 in. 

 in diameter, 3-celled, 2 seeds in each cell, the seeds covered by 

 a thick, fleshy, acid arillode. 



Hab, Mekeo District, British New Guinea. Capt. F. R. 

 Barton, who states that both the flowers and fruit are eaten 

 and much appreciated by the natives, and that the flowers 

 which resemble in colour the Laburnum, have a fine fragrance 

 and nut-like flavour ; and that the fruit resembles the English 

 gooseberry with a squeeze of lime added. 



Dr. Hollrung records B. dnsi/stachya Muell. Arg. for German 

 New Guinea, but that Javanese-species, judging from Miguel's 

 description in the Batavia Flora, differs in my opinion considera- 

 ably from B. pupuana. Our knowledge of this genus is even at 

 the present very limited on account of the imperfect material 

 botanists have had to work upon. Sir J. D. Hooker found this 

 to be the case when working up the genus for the Flora of 

 British India. It does seem remarkable that a genus named and 

 described about 112 years ago by J. de Loureiro in his Flora of 

 Cochin China ii. 661, and of which several of the species are 

 known to furnish the aborigines of the various countries in 



