246 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



Nepal to Khasia (and eastern Bengal). 



Unfortunately I have not yet been able to see a type specimen of this species, 

 which seems often misunderstood by different authors. Wallich's description of 

 the inflorescences is as follows: "Flowers small, green, pubescent, fascicled, short- 

 peduncled, disposed in slender, terminal racemes on the naked branches, inter- 

 spersed with a number of small, lanceolate floral leaflets, the whole forming a 

 branchy panicle, which as the fruits enlarge changes to numerous axillary racemes." 

 The branches are described as " round, dotted and scabrous." The two specimens 

 before me, which were determined and distributed by J. D. Hooker and J. 

 Thomson in 1859 as R. nipalensis came from Sikkim and Khasia. The Sikkim 

 specimen bears female flowers and fruits, both arranged in axUlary pseudo-racemes; 

 the branchlets are smooth. The second specimen from Khasia bears young fruits 

 in subpaniculate racemes and the branchlet is provided with many small lenti- 

 cels, which are not distinctly elevated. 



Other specimens from east Bengal (Herb. Griffith, No. 2032), Assam (Dr. 

 Prain's Collector No. 508, 1896) and Upper Burma (Sheik Mokim, in 1897) bear 

 young fruits in a distinct paniculate inflorescence, but the branchlets are almost 

 smooth. These three specimens might possibly better belong to R. tonkinensis 

 Pitard than to R. nipalensis, unless these two species really represent only varie- 

 ties of one. It is possible, that R.javanicus Miquel {Fl. Ind. Bot. I. pt. 1, 646 [1855]) 

 from Java also belongs to R. nipalensis, as indicated by Koorders {Excursionsfl. 

 Java, II. 554 (1912), but of this species I have not yet seen sufficient material. 



8. Rhanmus Wightii Wight & Amott, Prodr. Fl. Ind. I. 164 (1834). — Lawson 

 in Hooker f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 1. 639 (1875). — Trimen, Handb. Fl. Ceylon, I. 283 

 (1893). 



East India: western peninsula, Ceylon. 



In this species the fascicles of flowers are borne in the axils of smaller leaves 

 along rather short branchlets which appear in the axils of the normal large leaves. 

 These early flowering branchlets are different from the inflorescence in the fore- 

 going three species. 



9. Rhanmus formosanus Matsumura in Tokyo Bot. Mag. XII. 23 

 Matsumura & Hayata in Jour. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, XXII. 88, t. 8 {Enum. PL 

 Formos.) (1906). 



Formosa. 



This species seems to me closely related to R. Wightii, but I have not yet seen 

 any specimens. 



10. Rhamnus triqueter Wallich apud Lawson in Hooker f., Fl. Brit. Ind. I. 

 639 (1875). 



Ceanothus triquetra Wallich in Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 376 (1824). 



Western Himalaya. 



The description of Wallich is short and insufficient. I have had before me one 

 of his specimens numbered 4265*^ from Shringapur, with which fully agree other 

 specimens from the northwestern Himalaya, namely Thomson, in 1859, 2-5000 

 ft.; G. King, in 1869, near Mussoorie. The dried leaves are rather yellow. The 

 petals of the female flowers are broadly obovate and emarginate, as Hooker de- 

 scribes them, and the seeds have the same broad dorsal furrow as those of the 

 allied species Nos. 4-9, which, I think, form a special group within the genus. 



11. Rhanmus Bodinieri L4veill6 in Fedde, Rep. Sp. Nov. X. 473 (1912). 

 Descriptio emendata: Frutex 0.75-1.5 m. altus; ramuli juniores hirsuto- 



tomentosi, striato-angulati, vetustiores nigrescentes, vix glabreacentes, rotundi, 



