139 



K Ord. RUBIACE^E. Lindl., Veg. K, p. 761 (Cinchonacese) ; Le 



Maout & Dec., p. 483. 

 Tribe Naucleece. 



Genus TTncaria,* Schreb. B. & H., Gen., ii, p. 31. Species 

 30, all tropical, one African, another South American, the 

 rest Indian. 



139. Uncaria Gambier,t Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., i, p. 517 (1832). 



Syn. Nauclea Gambir, Hunter. 



Figures. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., ix, t. 22, cop. in Hayne, x, t. 3, and 

 Nees, Supp. ; Berg, Charact., f. 340; Bumph., Herb. Amboyn., v, 

 t. 34, f. 2, 3; Korthals, Verhandl. Natuur. Gesch. Nedeiiansch. 

 Bezitt., 1839-42, Bot., t. 34. 



Description. A strong, shrubby climber ; stems rather slender, 

 slightly thickened at the nodes, cylindrical or somewhat angular, 

 smooth. Leaves opposite, stalked, readily disarticulating ; stipules 

 two at each node, interpetiolar, ovate or oblong, entire, blunt, 

 early caducous, leaving a linear scar after falling ; blade 3 or 4 

 inches long, ovate or oblong-ovate, rounded at the base, suddenly 

 narrowed into the attenuate apex, entire or with a very few wide 

 crenatures, smooth on both surfaces. Flowers small, closely 

 crowded on small, globular, hairy receptacles at the extremity of 

 axillary peduncles about an inch long and of singular structure ; 

 these are smooth, laterally compressed, and taper from a broad 

 base in their lower half ; half way they are provided with a cup-like 

 whorl of small bracts, and beyond this become slender, cylindrical, 

 and finely silky; at the whorl of bracts is an articulation, and 

 after the fall of the whole inflorescence at this point the broad 

 lower portions become elongated, very hard, and curved into hooks, 

 by which the plant climbs. Calyx woolly or silky, the tube united 

 with the ovary, the limb divided into 5 lanceolate or triangular 

 teeth. Corolla monopetalous, with a slender tube \ inch long, 

 widening upwards, and terminating in an open cup with 5 broadly 



* Name from uncus, hooked, in reference to the falcate peduncles, 

 f Gambir is the Malay name of the extract. 



