92 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. Z. affinis. 
uncommonly large; about 12 mm. long, its position being indicated externally by 
a circular area 5 mm. in diameter; albumen homogeneous and hard. 
Hasirat.—The Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Near Malacca at Ching (Griffith) 
and at Batu Tiga (Ridley No. 1419). In the District of Perak at Larut (King’s 
Collecto- No. 3448). Ridley 1. c. gives also the following Malayan localities. 
Singapore: Bukit Timah, Chan Chu, Dindings: Gunong Tungul In damp places 
in the forests at Kayu tanam Prov. of Padong in W. Sumatra (Beccari). It is also 
cultivated in the Botanic Garden of Buitenzorg as introduced from Lampong in 
the East of the Island. Native names: "Assam Cumbang” (King’s collector) ; 
“Salak utan” (Ridley). 
OsnsERvATIONS.— This species with the two following form a distinet section in 
the genus Zalacca, on account of the female spadix not being composed of true 
flower spikes, but only of shortened branchlets, which bear in the axillas of 
secondary spathes small grouns of 2—4 bracteate. solitary female flowers, not accom- 
panied by neuter ones; further the fruits are smooth, being clothed with large 
Hattened scales, of which the apiees are not proluced into an upturned subulate, or 
subspinous tip. 
Z. affims is characterized by its leaves having the petiole armed with large, 
rigid, scattered, or shortly seriate spines ; by its leaflets being green on both 
surfaces, and in interrupted groups of 2—4 on each side of the rhachis, oblanceolate— 
sigmoid, suddenly acuminate to a, setiform apex; by its male spadices having 
elongate branches, bearing short tomentose sessile spikes, solitary or in small groups 
in the axillas of much longer acuminate spathes ; by its 3-seeded, ovoid or 
obovoid or subturbinate fruits with broad, appressed sharply grooved scales, dis- 
posed in 24—26 vertical series ; by the seeds oblong, obtusely trigonous and enveloped 
in a sparingly fleshy integument. 
I have described mainly the specimens collected by me in Sumatra, which 
however do not seem to differ essentially from those of Malacca, although a certain 
amount of variability may be observed’ in the size and width of the leaflets, and 
especially in the length of the female flower-bearing branchlets, and in the length 
of the male spikes. The size and shape of the fruit is also rather variable. 
Z 
Prare 56.—Zallacca affinis Grif.—Male spadix (or one of its divisions); inter- 
mediate portion of a leaf. From a specimen gathered by me in 1878 in the 
Garden of Buitenzorg from a cultivate] plant introduced from Lampong in Sumatra 
(Herb. Beccari.) 
Prate 57.—Zalacca affinis Grif.—Intermediate portion of a leaf; female spadix 
(or a division of it?) with not fully developed flowers; one of the flower-bearing 
branchlets; branch of the spadix with mature fruits; three mature fruits, one 
entire, one cut open, showing two of the three seeds in situ, a third in transverse 
section; seeds cut longitudinally through the embryo and the apical pit. From 
these impenes collected by me in Sumatra. The fruits were preserved in alcohol. 
