Flora of the Malayan Peninstda. 321 



DiSTEiB. Indo-China, from the Andamans and Tenasserim to Cochin 

 China, Hongkong. 



The two varieties distinguished in the Flora of British India can no longer be 

 maintained in view of the large suites of specimens reported of late years from the 

 Andamans, where the species is exceedingly common. 



18. Lettsomia, Eoxb. 

 Scandent, more or less hirsute or strigose shrubs. Leaves cordate 

 rounded or truncate. Flowers in axillary, peduncled, corymbose or 

 capitate cymes ; bracts conspicuous. Sepals 5, orbicular or elliptic ; 

 somewhat thickened and coriaceous in fruit. Corolla usually pink ; tube 

 infundibuliform-campanulate ; limb plicate, very shortly 5-lobed. 

 Stamens 5, exserted or included; anthers oblong or linear, straight. Disk 

 annular or cupular. Ovary 2-celled ; ovules 4 ; style filiform ; stigma 

 2-globose. Fruit a dry berry. Seeds 4 or fewer, embedded in a 

 mealy pulp. — Distrib. Species about 40, in tropical Africa and S.E. 

 Asia. 



There is not, as the writer has already explained [Journ. As. Soc. Beng. LXIII. 2, 91), 

 any very good reason for retaining Lettsoinia as a genus apart from Argyreia. In 

 Argyreia the ovary is completely 4-celled ; in Lettsomia it is 2-celled, but not infre- 

 quently a partial dissepiment of smaller or larger size is to be found at the base of, 

 sometimes half-way up, the cell. 



Capsule chartaceous ; seeds usually 4, only casually fewer ; 

 leaves cordate, softly hairy; cymes capitate; bracts large, 

 elliptic-oblong, sub-persistent . . . . . . 1. L. peguensis. 



Capsule coriaceous or sometimes somewhat fleshy ; seeds usually 

 1, only casually 2 : — 



Cymes compact ; bracts large, persistent : — 



Cymes capitate, globose ; bracts purple, large, orbicular- 

 obtuse; leaves ovate-lanceolate, sparingly adpressed-hirsute 2. L. sphcerocephala. 

 Cymes sub-capitate, hardly globose ; bracts ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute ; leaves ovate or elliptic, base rounded or 

 shortly cuneate : — 



Corolla 2 '25 in. long; leaves chartaceous, glabrous 

 and shining above, a few hairs on petiole and midrib 

 beneath . . . . . . . . . . 3. L. Maingayi. 



Corolla 1-25 in. long ; leaves firmer, glabrous not shining 

 above, hirsute beneath : — 



Leaves hirsute, more especially on the nerves, beneath ; 



petioles sparingly hairy . . . . . . 4. L. Ridleyi. 



Leaves densely hirsute beneath throughout; petioles f 4a. L. Ridleyi, 

 densely hairy . . . . . . . . ( vak. velutina. 



Cymes lax ; bracts small, rarely with a casual f oliaceous 

 bract in a cyme, and usually caducous : — 



Sepals narrowly lanceolate, acute, spreading or sub- 

 refiexed in fruit ; bracts lanceolate, occasionally one 

 large and leaf -like ; leaves elliptic, softly hairy on both 

 surfaces .. .. .. .. .. 5. L. adpressa. 



