330 



THE SPECIES OF MYRISTICA 



68. Myristica retusa, n. sp. King. A tree 40 to 60 feet high ; young branches stout, 

 striate, pale brown or cinereous when dry, glabrous, except the very tips, which, like the 

 leaf-buds and petioles of the young leaves, are cinereous-puberulous. Leaves very large, 

 coriaceous, oblong or elliptic-oblong, often slightly obovate, the apex blunt and usually 

 retuse, the edges a little recurved when dry, gradually narrowed from above the middle 

 to the slightly cordate or rounded, sometimes unequal, base ; upper surface glabrous, 

 shining; lower pale brown or whitish from a uniform layer of dense minute hairs 

 which persist everywhere except on the nerves; main nerves 16 to 24 pairs, spreading, 

 sub-horizontal towards the base, prominent beneath and interarching close to the margin ; 

 length 13 to 21 in., breadth 5'5 to 8 in.; petiole '5 to '75 in., stout. Male and female 

 jloivcrs unknown. Fruit 2 to 3, in short woody racemes below the leaves, ovoid, gibbous 

 at one side, shortly apiculate or beaked, deciduously and minutely rufous-tomentose ; 

 length (unripe) 2 to 2*25 in., diam. 2 in.; peduncle proper *25 in. long, expanded into 

 a ring at its apex; pericarp crustaceous, *2 in. thick; arillus very short, embracing little 

 more than the base of the seed, thin, much fimbriate ; seed narrowly obovoid, smooth. 



Perak : at elevations of 500 to 800 feet ; King's Collector No. 7690. 



A magnificent species, of which flowers of both sexes are unknown. It probably 

 belongs to section Pyrrhosa. 



Plate 171. Myristica retusa, King. 1, Branch with young fruit ; 2, section of fruit 

 showing seed with its small fimbriate arillus — of natural size. 



Doubtful and excluded species 



M. angustifolia, Roxb. FL Ind. iii. 847, is probably M. glauca, Bl. 



M. eugenlefolia, A. DC. Prod. xiv. 1, 190. This is described from a specimen 

 in leaf and fruit only, which is said to have been collected in Penang. I have not 

 seen any specimen of it. 



M. Finlaysoniana, Wall. Cat. 6793, is Melodorum fulgens, H. f. & T. (ex Book, 

 fit Sf Thorns. FL Ind. 120). 



M. glaucescens, Wall. Cat. 6790, is Litscea venulosa, Meissn. A. DC. Prod. xv. 

 1, 187 [tub Tetrantherd] (ex Book. ft. Fl. Br. Ind. v. 161). 



M. Heyneana, Wall. Cat. 6789, appears to be identical with Herb. Wight No. 2 190 

 (Kew Distrib.) There is a specimen of each in the Calcutta Herbarium ; that of the 

 former has half of a fruit (detached); and the latter has detached male flowers. Dis- 

 section of the latter shows them to be those of a Eumyristica. The perianth is ovoid, 

 inflated, glabrous on both surfaces, its teeth short and acute. The andrcecium is 

 cylindric, shortly apiculate; the anthers are about 15, linear; and the stalk is equal to 

 a quarter of the length of the column. The species may, I trust, be re-discovered. 



M. IIookert, Wall. Cat. 6802#, is indeterminable (ex Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. v. 





113) 



M. integrifolia, Steud. JVornencL, is Myrica integrifolia, Wall. [i¥". Nagi } Thunbg.] 

 Hook. fl. FL Br. Ind. v. 113) 



