1904.] D. Prain — Notes on the BoxhurgJdaceas. • 39 



Notes on the Boxhurghiacese, with a description of a new species of 

 Stemona. — By D. Prain. 



[Read 1st June, 1904.] 



la 1892 a native collector, in the employment of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, sent from the Shan Hills a specimen of a Stemona 

 which appeared to be a marked variety S. Oriffithiana Kurz, a species 

 first described by Griffith in his Journal of Travels, p. 149, but there left 

 without a name, though Griffith indicated Ids belief that it represented 

 a new genus of Eoxhurghiacese. The only salient character by which 

 it differs from the other known species of Stemona is, however, its 

 erect instead of climbing habit. Two years ago another plant collector 

 brought with him from Lower Bui-ma living examples of Griffith's 

 original plant, which were found, on flowering, to agree exactly with the 

 original description drawn up by Griffith, but to deviate in certain 

 respects from the description given by Kurz in the Society's Journal 

 for 1873. 



During the present year Mr. Burkill has sent from Burma (Katha) 

 yet another living plant which has flowered in the Botanic Garden 

 side by side with the plant referred to above. Mr. Burkill's plant 

 is found to agree absolutely with the Shan Hill specimen already 

 alluded to, and to differ so markedly from the Griffithian one as to 

 deserve to be regarded as a distinct species. The necessary descrip- 

 tion has been accordingly prepared and is now offered to the Society. 

 The task of describing this new species has involved an examina- 

 tion of all the material of this natural order present in the Calcutta 

 Herbarium and a consultation of various references to its species. 

 Advantage has therefore been taken of the opportunity afforded by 

 this study to draw up a key that may be of use in discriminating 

 the various species ; in the list that follows the key notes are given, 

 enlarging the existing knowledge of their nomenclature and distribu- 

 tion as well as of the distribution of Stichoneuron, the only other Indian 

 genus belonging to this order. 



