184 D. Prain ^ I. H. Burkill — a new species from Burma. [No. 4, 



Pjinmana forests it grows over the bushes that are mixed with teak ; 

 at Prome it grows in deciduous forest of ^gle Marmelos^ bamboos, etc., 

 and, as already said, it grows about Pegu in bamboo thickets. 



In Tenasserim, near Moulmein, it is excessively common on laterifce 

 in 10 feet jungle of Comhretum. To the east of Moulmein it is absent 

 from the high evergreen forests of the Dawna range, but re-appears be- 

 yond them in the thinner forest of Thingan-nyi-naung, and continues 

 right up to the Siamese frontier at Myawadi on a clayey grey soil. 



The tuber of the plant is very woody, and has a hard skin cracking 

 rather rectangularly like the carapace of a tortoise ; in shape ifc is very 

 irregular, with blunt processes lying just under the surface of the soil. 

 Wiry roots arise from the surface, which bear low warty thorns, and dy- 

 ing may themselves almost constitute thorns* The flesh is yellowish- 

 purple and unpleasant to the taste. Even the wild boars seem to leave 

 the root altogether alone. One stem arises from each tuber, and usually 

 bears strong prickles ; at the base of each leaf in the position of 

 stipules are two or four downwardly directed small thorns. When young 

 the stem is pubescent ; when old, with the hairs rubbed off, it becomes 

 shining and has dark blotches on it. The leaves are very like those of 

 Dioscorea fasciculata, but are larger; and the rows of prickles which 

 generally line the ma!in-nerves serve to distinguish them. When young 

 they are pubescent ; when old they are glabrescent, especially above. 

 The inflorescence, which is produced in the month of May, is a long 

 drooping spike : in the male the flowers are arranged on it in small scor- 

 pioid cymes ; in the female they are solitary. This type of secondary 

 inflorescence has hitherto never been described in any Asiatic Dioscorea^ 

 though there are at least two others which share the character. The 

 young cymes are recurved ; but after flowering they are found to be 

 quite straight. The young ovaries, after flowering is over, begin to 

 turn upwards, and long before the fruit reaches maturity have come to 

 be parallel to the rhachis, their tips looking upwards. At maturity the 

 fruits are imbricated, all directed away from the earth : dehiscing, they 

 hold the seeds until some sudden puff of wind blows them away. It is 

 when in fruit that the plant is most easily recognised ; for the long 

 spikes, sometimes over 40 cm. long, and with 40 capsules, are very con- 

 spicuous and distinctive. 



The root is too woody to befit for use as food, but we have heard of 

 a very quaint use of it in southern Burma as a reputed antifecundative 

 taken by the male before coition. 



The plant is widely known in Burma as Hkadhkyo, pronounced 

 Khatcho, or at Prome as Ginbeekpya ; it is called Katak in the Northern 

 Shan States. 



