234 



NEW SPECIES OF WESTERN PENINSULAR PLANTS 

 FROM NORTH KANAKA AND MYSORE, 



By W. A. Talbot, f.l.s., Deputy Conservator of Forests. 



( With Plates I to 10.) 



- (Head before the Bombay Natural History Society on 30th Sept. 1897.) 



Guttifer^e. 



G. malabaricaj Talb., sp. nov. G. ovalifolius, Hook., f. var. 

 macranlha ? Fl. Br. I. 1*269, G. spicata, Kz. MSS. in Herb. Cal, 

 .Herb. No, 3713. 



A small or medium-sized tree with sulcate, angular branchlets. Leaves 

 coriaceous, ovate or oblong lanceolate, acute or obtuse, glabrous, shining 

 above and beneath ; nerves numerous, anastomosing, distinct, midrib 

 prominent beneath ; blade 6-3 by 2'5-l in.; petiole \5-*75 in. long, 

 rugose, dilated at the base, so that the two opposite petioles clasp the 

 branchlets. Flowers dioecious. Male flowers white, 'h-'lb in, across, 

 numerouSj, sessile or shortly pedicellecl, fascicled on short, axillary, thick 

 peduncles ; pedicels bracteolate at the base. Sepals 4-5, orbicular, ^ the 

 orbicular white, concave petals. Staminal phalanges 5, thick, equalling 

 the petals, surrounded at the base or springing from a lobed mamillated 

 disk ; anthers 1*2 on each phalange, didymous, free part of filament 

 short, stout. Female fl. : Sepals and petals of male. Staminodes in 5, 

 thin, flattened phalanges surrounding the ovary and springing from 

 a disk similar to that of the male flower, effete anthers 4-5 on each 

 phalange, flat, didymous and on longer free filaments than those 

 of the male flower. Ovary 3-celled, crowned with the 3-lobed, 

 spreading stigma. Dr. Prain remarks as follows about this species. 

 "I can't tell whether this be G. ovalifolia, var. macrantha or not. 

 But it is exactly the same as a solitary sheet collected by Col. 

 Beddome which Mr. Kurz called G. spicata, and on which, at a later 

 time, Mr. Brace has written : 'Can this be var. macranthaV Dr. King 

 has left it where Mr. Brace put it. But, if it is var. macrantha, the 

 sooner a new species is made of it the better. It is certainly distinct 

 from G. ovalifolia, Hook, f." On the Western Ghats from North 

 Kanara southwards, common on the Gairsoppah Ghat in evergreen 

 forests. Flowers cold season, Fruit (not seen) rainy season, 



