512 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



Hemidesmus indicus, Br. in Mem. Wern. Soc. Edinb. I. 57 (1811). 

 A prostrate or twining shrub, with slender terete branchlets ; older 

 branches dark brown, with prominent wart-like lenticels. Leaves char- 

 taceous, very variable, in pairs or whorls of 4, of which one pair 

 shorter than the other; elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate, acute or 

 mucronate at apex, rounded at base ; glabrous on both surfaces, the 

 upper sometimes variegated with white, the lower often pale ; margins 

 recurved ; 2 to 4 in. long, "5 to '75 in. broad (our specimen) ; midrib 

 slender, raised beneath or flattened ; main nerves 4 to 5 pairs, curving 

 upwards and meeting near the margin ; reticulations obscure ; petiole 

 •15 to '25 in. long, slender. Cymes opposite, on very short peduncles ; 

 flowers on short pedicels with many ovate-acute bracts. Calyx-lohes 

 ovate-acute, membranous, "05 in. long ; scales minute. CoroZ^a-lobes 

 ovate-oblong, acute ; tips incurved ; "15 to "25 in. long. Corona-scaleB often 

 emarginate. Follicles cylindric, 4 to 7 in. long, spreading at 180° apart 

 or slightly curved backwards from the straight line ; tips slightly hooked ; 

 pericarp thin, smooth. Seeds ovate-oblong, flattened, ridged on the 

 ventral face ; testa granulate on one side and the margin, smooth on 

 the other ; cotyledons oblong ; radicle slightly shorter than cotyledons. 

 Wall. Cat. 8243 ; Wight Contrib. 63, Ic. t. 594 ; Deless. Ic. Sel. V. t. 

 55 ; Dene, in DC. Prodr. VIII. 494 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. II. 465 ; Benth. 

 & Trim. Med. PL t. 174 ; Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 5 ; Trimen Fl. Ceyl. 

 III. 144 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. II. 147 ; Prain Beng. Plants 686 ; Engl. & 

 Prantl Naturl. Pflanzenfam. IV. 2, 218, fig. 63, h. j. H. Wallichii, 

 Miq. PL Hohenack. No. 359. Periploca inclica, Willd. Sp. PL I. 1251. 

 Asclepias pseiulo-sarsa, Eoxb. Hort. Beng. 20, and Fl. Ind. II. 39, excl. 

 syn. — Burm. Thes. Zeyl. t. 83, fig. 1. " Naru-nundi," Eheede Hort. 

 Mai. X. t. 34. 



DiNDiNGS : at Bruas Road, Curtis. — Distrib. India, Ceylon. 



The only specimen available was a very poor one with only one or two nearly 

 rotten dowers, but there seems no reason to doubt its identification. 



5. FiNLAYSONIA, Wall. 



A lofty glabrous climbing shrub with milky juice. Leaves opposite. 

 Floioers in 2- to 3-chotomous axillary cymes, moderate-sized, yellowish 

 and purple. Calyx short, 5-partite. Corolla rotate, deeply 5-fid ; the 

 lobes broad, ovate, overlapping to the right. Corowa-processes 5, fili- 

 form, close behind the stamens. Stamens inserted at the throat of the 

 corolla; filaments slender; anthers adnate to the style-apex by the 

 middle, ending in broad inflexed membranous acute appendages ; 

 pollen-masses cohering in pairs in eacli cell ; pollen granular ; pollen- 



