140 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. K. ferox. 
PLate $89.—Korthalsia ferox — Becc.— The type specimen P. B. No. 1926 in 
Herb. Beccari. 
PLate 90.—Korthalsia ferox  Becc.—Leaf-sheath with its ocrea and the base 
of the petiole; upper end of a leaf from a full grown plant; portion of the 
fruiting spadix. From a plant cultivated at Buitenzorg (No. 385 Herb. Bogor. in 
Herb. Beccari). 
19a. KORTHALSIA FEROX var. MALAYANA Becc. in Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vi 
476; Ridley, Mat. FI. Mal. Penins. ii, 218. 
Descriprion.—Smaller than the type. Sheathed stem of the flowering plant 15 mm. 
in diameter. The leaf sheaths and the very short truncate ocre@ are armed with 
very short spines on the ventral face; petiole and rhachis fugaciously furfuraceous. 
Leaflets few, rhomboidal, or in younger plants cuneaie-rhomboidal, 12—29 cm. long, 
6—10 cm. wide, greenish beneath, rather obtusely and boldly undulately double- 
toothel on the upper margin; the teeth very shortly apiculate (not aristate); the 
anse somewhat flattened, thiekish at the base. »florescence small, apparently about 
60 cm. long, composed of a few short primary branches, each bearing a very few 
spikes. The spikes have a pelicellar part more or less exserted from their 
respective spathes, are 8—10 cm. long, 10—11 mm. in diameter with and 6 mm. 
without the flowers and have not a very tomentose appearance, the calices of the 
flowers being half exserted from the woolly bracteoles. Flowers 45 mm. long. 
Hasirat.—The Malay Peninsula at Larut in dense jungle on the Hills (King’s 
Collector No. 6563 in Herb. Cale. The type specimen with flowers.) Sterile 
specimens have also been collected in the same region by Scorteckini, one bearing 
the date September 1884 on Gunong ljuk. 
Osservarions.—I have considered this as a variety of K. feror, but it could 
also be supposed to be a distinct species or a form of K. laciniosa, from which, 
however, differs in its smaller dimension; in the short, slightly spinous ocre® ; by 
the leaflets being only obtusely toothed, and the smaller spikes less distinctly 
tomentose and having smaller flowers, with their calices conspicuously protruding 
beyond the villous bracteoles. In the type specimens one leaf from the upper part 
of the plant has a very short petiole and the pinniferous part is 30 em. long, 
and has in all 9 segments exactly rhomboidal. In one of Scortechini’s specimens, 
that from Gunong Ijuk, the leayes are exactly of the dimensions of the type, but 
the leaf-sheaths are armed on their lower part and on the dorsal face with rather 
robust sbort conical prickles and with small spines above on the ventral face, as 
well as on the short (1 em. long) truncate ocree. One leaf has the petiole 20 cm. 
long, the pinniferous part 15 em. long and bearing 10 cuneately-rhomboidal leaflets. 
Other specimens also collected by Scortechini, belonging to younger plants, have 
smooth leaf-sheaths, ocreæ coriaceous in their basal part and terminated by a perish- 
able fibrious-net and leaves of the dimensions of the other specimens. Probably 
when the fruit of this variety shall be known, it may prove to be a distinct 
species. Š 
