1S6 G. King — Materials for a Flora of the Malayan. JPeninsula. [No. 1, 



Indian Botany who have dealt with the Indian Barringtonias (Mr. C. B. Clarke in 

 Hooker's Flora of British India, and the late Dr. H. Triraen in his Flora of 

 Ceylon) adopt the view that obtained prior to the publication of Miers' paper, and 

 they believe that the three species of Agasta of the latter author are merely forms 

 of the Barringtonia speciosa of Forster. If Miers' arrangement, however, is to be 

 followed, the name of the plant occurring on the coasts of the Malay Peninsula 

 and of British India would be either Agasta indica or A. asiatica according to the 

 shape of the base of the fruit. Miers says of the fruit of the form which 

 he considers alone entitled to the name Barringtonia speciosa, fructus non vidi, and 

 he relies solely on Forster's figure (Char. Gen. t. 38 B, fig. b). In his account 

 of it that figure no doubt shows a 4-celled fruit. Whether or not Forster or his 

 artist had a fully-developed fruit before him when he made the drawing referred 

 to cannot be known. But however that may be, the characters, other than the 

 number of cells in the fruit of Forster's Barringtonia and of Miers' three Agastas 

 are practically alike, and I fail to see any good basis for the foundation on them 

 of four species belonging to two genera. 



2. Barringtonia conoidea, Griff. Notul. 656. Ic. 635, 636, fig. 1. 

 A large busli or small tree, glabrous ; young branches sub-sulcate. 

 Leaves tbickly membranous, oblanceolate-elliptic or cuneate : oblong, 

 narrowed at the minutely subcordate or rounded base to the short, stout 

 petiole; the apex blant or sub-acute; the edges obscurely crenate- 

 serrulate or subentire ; main-nerves 9 to 13 pairs, curved, ascending; 

 length 45 to 10 in. ; breadth 2 to 4 in. ; petiole '15 to '2 in. Racemes 

 suberect, lateral or terminal, few-flowered, about 4 in. long, glabrous or 

 puberulous. Flowers less than 1 in. long and 1 in. across, on pedicels 

 •5 to *6 in. long. Calyx with a subcylindric tube, '15 in. long ; the base 

 with 8 gibbous processes; the limb bipartite. Pe^aZs 4, fleshy, ovate- 

 lanceolate. Stamens much exceeding the corolla. Fruit fibrous-fleshy, 

 conoid, produced at the base into 8 wing- like semi-cordate fleshy pro- 

 cesses and crowned at the apex by the calyx, 2*5 in. long and 175 in. 

 broad at the base. Kurz For. Flor. Burma I, 497 ; Clarke in Hook. fil. 

 Fl. Br. Ind. II, 508. B. alata, Wall. Cat. 3633. Butonica alata, Miers 

 in Trans. Linn. Soc. Ser. II, Bot. I, 70, t. 14, figs. 10 to 15. 



Malacca: Griffith (Kew Dist. 2423). Perak : Scortechini IZSb. 

 BURMAH : Wallich. 



At once distinguished by its curious conical fruit winged at the base. 



3. Barringtonia racemosa, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 52 ; Fl. Br. Ind. 

 II, 634. A glabrous tree, often 50 feet higli ; young branches rather 

 stout, cinereous. Leaves membranous, obloug-obovate or oblanceolate, 

 shortly acuminate, narrowed to the shortly petiolate base, faintly cre- 

 nate-denticulate ; main-nerves 8 to 15 pairs, spreading or ascending, 

 thin but prominent on the lower surface when dry ; length 4 to 12 in. ; 

 breadth 2 to 4 in. ; petiole '1 to '25 iu. Racemes much longer than 

 the leaves, (10 to 24 in. long) from the a?:ils of fallen leaves or terminal^ 



