342 G. King — Materials for a Flora of the Malai/an Feninsida. [N'o. 3^ 



young branches terete, dark-coloured when dry. Leaves tliitily coriaceous, 

 oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, the base narrowed ; both surfaces 

 pale and rather dull when dry : main nerves 5 or 6 pairs, faint, not", more 

 prominent than the intermediates : length 2'5 to 3'5 in., breadth 1 to 1*75 

 in., petiole '25 to "35 in. (??/wes extra-axil I ary^ from 1 to 1*5 in. long; the 

 peduncle filiform, '5 to '75 in. long. Flowers about 3 to 5, '25 in. in diam.,, 

 on thin divaricating pedicels "2, to "3 in. long (longer in fruit). Sepals 

 narrowly reniform, imbricate in two rows, sub-glabrous, pale, the edges 

 daik-coloured and minutely crenulate. Petals larger than the sepals, 

 spreading, rather coriaceous, ovate-rotund, narrowed to the base, 

 glabrous. Stamens 5 ; the anthers broadly OTate, the filaments dilated 

 and conjoined in their lower half into a tube. Dis<: none. Ovary short, 

 2-celled ; style about as long as the stamens, cylindric, striate, expanded 

 at the apex, the stigma truncate and 2-lobed. Fridt ovoid, glabrous, 

 crowned by the persistent style and with the calyx persistent at the 

 base, *5 in. long, usually 1-celled and 1-seeded, but sometimes 2-celled and 

 2-seeded. Lawson in Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. I. 614 (in part), 



Penang: Wallich's Collector ; Curtis, No. 1025. Malacca: Maingay 

 (Kew Distrib.) No. 392/2. 



The plant here described is that issued by Wallich doubtfully as a 

 Microtropis under the name M ? hivaluis. It is not, as Wallich appa- 

 rently supposed, the plant published by Jack in 1820 (Mulayan Mis- 

 cella)iies No. V) as Celastrus ? hivalvis ; for Jack describes his plant 

 as apetalous. I have seen no authentic specimen of Jack's plant ; but 

 I have little doubt that it is, as Miquel believed, the same as the species 

 to receive which that Botanist founded in 1859 the genus P aracelastrus 

 (Miq. Flora Ind. Bat. I, pt. 2, p. 590). Wallich issued under his Cata- 

 logue number 7270, and the name Fuomjmus capill'iceus, a Penang plant 

 with solitary capillary extra-axillary pedicels ; but his specimens have 

 neither flowers nor fruit. It is possible tiiat this may be the lost 

 Celastrus ? hivalvis of Jack. The issue of Wallich's Catalogue was not 

 begun until 1828, eio^ht years later than the issue of the number of the 

 Malayan Miscellanies where Jack's C. ? hivalvis was published. But, 

 as W^allich conectly suggested the genus Microtropis for his No. 4340, 

 that author's name must stand for this plant, and another must be 

 found for the true apetaldis Celastrus ? hivalvis of Jack, should Miquel's 

 genus Paracelastrus not. be maintained. 



4. Microtropis filiformis. King. A small tree, 10 to 15 feet high ; 

 young branches slender, terete, dark-coloured when dry. Leaves thinly 

 coriaceous, more or less broadly elliptic, shortly acuminate, the edges 

 sub-undulate, slightly recurved when dry, the base cuneate ; the upper 

 surface shining, the lower dull, pale ; main nerves 5 to B pairs, 



