1904.]. D. "PrsAn-^Notes on the Boxhurghiacese, 41 



Inhame maderasp. foliis hinis pulchre venosis Petiv. Gazophyl . 50, t. 

 31, f. 6 (1702). 



Ubium polypoides album Rumph, Herb. Amboin. v. 364, t. 129 

 (1750). 



Dioscorea oppositifoUa Linn. Sp. PI. 1032 in part (1753). 



Boxburghia gloriosoides Jones in Roxb. Corom. PI. i. 26, t. 32 

 (1795). 



JK. viridiflora Sm. Exot. Bot. i. 111. t. 57. (1804). 



B. gloriosa Pera. Syn. 412 (1805). 



B. Stemona Steud. Nomencl. (2 ed.) ii. 475 (1841). 



Stemona gloriosoides Voigt Hort. Suburb. Calcutta. 650 (1845). 



India : Circars ! Indo-china : Assam ! Silhet ! Khasia ! Jaintea 

 Naga Hills! Chittagong! Siam (^cZe Kunth) ; Cocbin-Ohina (^(ie Lou- 

 reiro). China: Hupeh ! Formosa! Philippines; Luzon! Moluccas! 

 (fide Rumpbius). 



Dioscorea oppositifoUa Linn., Sp. PI. 1032, i8 based on two plants one being the 

 Dioscorea foliis oppositis ovatis acuminatis oi the Flor. Zeylan., p. 361, which still is 

 accepted as D. oppositifoUa Linn. ; the other plant to which, in Linnaeus' work, the 

 name gave cover, ia the Inhame maderasp. foUis hinis pulchre venosis of Petiver (Qaz. 

 50, t. 31, f. 6). The expression ' pulchre venosis ' ought alone to have been sufficient 

 to exclude Petiver's plant from association with the Ceylon one, and a cursory glance 

 at the figure could not fail to show that the two did not agree. It, however, occur- 

 red to Mr. Burkill and myself, who have been of late engaged in studying the 

 Indian Dioscoreas, that Petiver's plant might not be ek Dioscorea at all. We therefore 

 referred the subject to the Keeper of the Botanical Department, British Museum, 

 in which institution the actual specimens from which Petiver's drawings were made 

 are preserved. The result has been that our friend, Dr. Rendle, to whom the en- 

 quiry was entrusted, finds that the plant in Petiver's collection which Linnaeus ha3 

 included in his Dioscorea oppositifoUa is really Stemona tuberosa. 



Occasionally, but very rarely, the leaves low down may be 3-nate, and occasion- 

 ally those at the tips of branches are alternate, but this has not been noticed by the 

 writer on any of the stout main-stems. 



4. Stemona moluccana Prain. 



Ubium polypoides rubrum Rumph. Herb. Amboin. v. 365 (1750). 

 Boxburghia moluccana Blume, Enum. i. 9 (1827) ; Kuntb, Enum. 

 V. 289. 



Moluccas : (fide Rumpbius) ; Amboina, Barclay ! 



This species is very closely related to 8. tuberosa but differs, in Barclay's 

 specimen, in shape of leaf and style of inflorescence, in both which particulars it 

 resembles 8. Curtisii; that species, however, has smaller flowers and only alternate 

 leaves : according to Rumphius the present plant has the leaves scattered towards 

 the ends of the branches, opposite below. 

 J. II. 6 



