Randia.] kubiace^:. 155 



nate, 1^ to 2^ in. long, glabrons, except a few appressed hairs on the veins 

 underneath, and deciduous. Flowers 1 to 3 together, on very short pedicels, 

 at the ends of the branches or at the old nodes. Calyx-limb small, campa- 

 nulate, shortly 5 -toothed, usually persistent. Corolla glabrous, with a short 

 rather slender tube. Berries white, 4 to 6 lines diameter, nearly globular, 

 with a small number of large ovoid seeds immersed in the pulpy placentas. 



On the top of Victoria Peak, Champion ; also Wright. The very few specimens I have 

 seen are in fruit only, with very young flower-buds. I cannot, therefore, describe exactly the 

 form of the corolla, but it appears to be very near that of the Indian R. (Griffithia) fragrans. 



3. R. sinensis, Rcem. and Schult. Syst. v. 248. An erect shrub, either 

 glabrous or slightly pubescent at the ends of the branches, armed with short 

 straight axillary thorns. Leaves oblong, about 3 in. long, and scarcely 1 in. 

 broad. Mowers white, in rather dense terminal cymes, on very short common 

 peduncles. Calyx-limb shortly 5-toothed, deciduous. Corolla glabrous or 

 nearly so, with a slender tube about 8 lines long ; the lobes lanceolate, 2 to 

 2£ lines long. Stigma oblong, scarcely lobed. Berry small, globular. Seeds 

 few, flattened, immersed in the pulpy or almost fleshy placentas. — Oxyceros 

 sinensis, Lour. M. Cochin. 151. 



Hongkong, Champion ; also Lemma Island, Wright, and the neighbourhood of Canton, 

 but not as yet known out of S. China. Hooker and Arnott, it is true, refer here the R. longi- 

 flora, Lam. {Posoqueria, Roxb., or Griffithia, Korth.), a plant apparently common in the 

 Archipelago, but that has always stout recurved thorns, the flowers are also rather larger, 

 and the shape of the leaves and of the calycine teeth appears different. I do not feel, there- 

 fore, sufficiently confident in the specific identity of the two to unite them, without having 

 seen better specimens of the Chinese plant. 



This and the following species belong technically to Griffithia, W. and Am., separated as 

 a genus from Randia chiefly on account of the deciduous limb of the calyx ; but that cha- 

 racter is so very uncertain in some species, and so little in accordance with habit in others, 

 that the group can only be maintained, at the best, as an artificial section of Randia. 



4. R. canthioides, Champ, in Kew Journ.Bot.ivAQk. A low glabrous 

 unarmed shrub. Leaves oblong, acuminate, 3 to 4 in. long, coriaceous, smooth 

 and shining, like those of Randia corymbosa or of Canthium didymum. Cymes 

 axillary, 3- to 7 -flowered, with the common peduncle so short that the pedi- 

 cels (3 or 4 lines long) appear clustered in the axils of the leaves. Calyx- 

 limb shortly 5-toothed, deciduous. Corolla glabrous; the tube cylindrical, 

 about 4 lines long, the lobes rather shorter. Stigma ovoid. Berry globular, 



3 or 4 lines diameter, or sometimes smaller. Seeds angidar or flattened, im- 

 mersed in the pulpy placenta. 



Abundant in ravines, Champion and others, but not known out of the island, unless a spe- 

 cimen of Wright's, from Loochoo, in fruit only, belongs to the same species. In the flower- 

 ing branches of this and some other unarmed Randias, one leaf of each pair will sometimes 

 fall off early, leaving the petiole persistent and hardened, but not really spinescent. The 

 real thorns of Randias, Gardenias, Canthiums, etc., are abortive branches, although they 

 are not always strictly axillary, but appear in some species just above the axillary bud. 



5. R. densiflora, Bentk. An unarmed shrub, glabrous, excepting the 

 flowers. Leaves oval, oblong or almost lanceolate, coriaceous and shining, 



4 to 5 in. long. Mowers rather crowded, in almost sessile cymes, which are 

 really axillary, although they usually appear leaf-opposed by the abortion of 

 the subtending leaf. Calyx-limb usually persistent, very shortly 5-toothed. 

 Corolla-tube scarcely above 1 line long, the throat very hairy inside ; the lobes 



