400 G-. King — New Species of Ficns from New Guinea. [No. 4, 



flowers occur in a distinct set of receptacles and are nnaccompanied by 

 any trace of male or gall flowers. 



" It appears to me that, in the peculiarities in the structure and 

 arrangement of the flowers which I have above described, the evolu- 

 tionary history of the genus Ficus may to some extent be traced. I 

 have therefore ventured to arrange the Indo-Malayan species into two 

 great groups, and to divide the second of these great groups into three 

 sub-groups, according to their presumed seniority. Believing that her- 

 maphroditism is an archaic and primitive condition from which the 

 genus is in process of delivery, I look on its persistence, even in an 

 imperfect form, as an indication of age. I have therefore separated off 

 the ten species in which I find it regularly to occur into a distinct group. 

 Of this group pseudo-hermaphroditism is the diagnostic mark ; and to 

 the section which these ten species form I have given the name Palceo- 

 morphe. It is true that, in the whole of these ten species, the pseudo- 

 hermaphrodite flowers are confined to the same receptacles as the gall 

 flowers ; while the perfect females are confined to a distinct set of recep- 

 tacles in which there is no trace of either males or galls, and that the 

 receptacles are thus practically dioecious. Still it appears to me that 

 the persistence of the rudimentary female organ in the male flowers must 

 be taken as indicating a more primitive condition than the enclosure in 

 the same receptacle of strictly unisexual male and female flowers (the 

 arrangement obtaining in TJrostigma) . These ten species being disposed 

 of in a group by themselves, I have formed the remaining species of Indo- 

 Malayan Ficus into a group characterised by unisexual flowers. And 

 that group I have divided into three sub-groups, according as the recep- 

 tacles are monoecious, pseudo-monoecious, or practically dioecious, the 

 practically dioecious sub-group being again subdivided into sections 

 which are founded on the number of the stamens and the situation of 

 the receptacles. For five of the seven sections into which I have thus 

 thrown the Indo-Malayan species, I have adopted, as sectional designa- 

 tions, words previously in use as sectional or subgeneric names. For 

 the first section, as already stated, I have invented a new name, which 

 indicates what I believe to be its position in the evolution of the genus, 

 and for the seventh I have also invented a name, indicating its juniority 

 in point of evolution. The arrangement is as follows : — 

 GROUP I. — Pseudo-hermaphrodite ; male flowers with 1 stamen and 



a rudimentary pistil. 

 Pseudo-hermaphrodite flowers and gall 



flowers in one set of receptacles : 



fertile female flowers in another set Palceomorphe. 

 GROUP II. — Unisexual or asexual ; male flowers without rudimentary 



pistils. 



