1898.] G-. King — Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 33 



1 '5-2-25 in., breadth 1*75-3 in. ; petiole *75-l in., sparsely pubescent. 

 Male flowers usually solitary, rarely in racemes slightly longer than 

 the leaves, shortly pilose; the bracts oblong, serrate, "5 in. long. Calyx- 

 teeth erect, entire or dentate ; petals oblong, acute, puberulous outside. 

 Peduncle of female flower '5-1 in. long. Fruit brilliant scarlet when 

 ripe, oblong-fusiform, acutely ribbed, shortly pubescent, 15-2 in. 

 long ; seeds blackish, rugtilose, obscurely marginate, narrowed to the 

 base, '2 in. long and about '1 in. broad. Clarke in Hook. fil. Flor. Brit. 

 Ind. II, 611 ; Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. Ill, 392. Scotanthus Porteanus, 

 Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. V, Vol. 5, 25. Gymnopetalum hetero- 

 phyllum, Kurz in Trim. Journ. Bot. for 1875, p. 326. 

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands ; Kurz, 



4. Luffa, Cav. 



Climbers, large or small, pubescent or nearly glabrous ; tendrils 

 2-5-fid. Leaves cordate, usually 5-angular or 5-lobed ; petiole without 

 glands at its apex. Flowers yellow or white, monoecious, males and 

 females often from the same axil; females solitary or panicled, males 

 on long or short racemes or clustered. Male ; calyx-tube turbinate, 

 lobes 5, triangular or lanceolate ; petals 5, obovate ; stamens 3, rarely 

 5, filaments 3, free or connate ; anthers exserted, f ree, one 1 -eel led, the 

 others 2-celled ; cells sigmoid, often on the margin of the broad, con- 

 nective. Female ; calyx-tube shortly produced above the ovary ; lobes 

 and corolla as in the male ; ovary oblong, style cylindric, stigma 3-lobed ; 

 ovules very many, horizontal. Fruit large or small, oblong (not 

 spherical), smooth or angular or spinous, ultimately fibrous, not succu- 

 lent, 3-celled, usually circumscissile near the apex. Seeds many, oblong, 

 compressed. Distrib. Species 6, in the warmer regions of the Old 

 World and one in America. 



Loffa JEgypttaca, Miller Gard. Diet. ed. VIII, ex Hook. fil. in 

 Oliv. Flor. Trop. Afr. II, 530. Stem stout, many yards in length ; the 

 young branches glabrous, angled and very deeply sulcate ; tendrils 

 2-3-fid. Leaves large, reniform or reniform-orbicular in general outline, 

 palmately 5-lobed; the lobes acute, lobulate and denticulate; both sur- 

 faces scabrous or scaberulous, punctate, glabrous except the pubescent 

 nerves on the lower surface ; length 2*5-6 in., breadth 3-9 in., petiole 2-2*5 

 in., pubescent, eglandular. Male peduncle 6 in. long ; the flowers 4-12, 

 crowded near the summit, 1*5-2 in. in diam., their pedicels short, each 

 with a small ovate viscid bract, or ebracteate ; petals 5, yellow with 

 green veins ; stamens 5. Female flower solitary on a peduncle 1-3 in. 

 long, usually from the same axil as the male inflorescence ; fruit 5-1 2 

 in. long, sub-cylindric, with numerous bold ridges ; seeds usually black, 

 J. ii. 5 



