Microstcmnm.] hltX. ASCLEtlAbE^. iOl5 



simple or slightly branched, glabrous. Leaves either all replaced by minute 

 scales or a few in the upper part of the plant long and narrow-linear. Umbels 

 sessile or very shortly pedunculate at the upper'nodes, consisting of few dark- 

 purple flowers, on filiform pedicels of 8 to 4 lines. Calyx-segments small. 

 Corolla spreading to about 4 lines diameter, bearded inside with long purple 

 hairs, the lobes acuminate. Gynostegium very short, the anther-cells prominent. 

 Corona not very conspicuous. Follicles .narrow-linear, acuminate, fully Sin. 

 long. — EndL Iconogr. t. 60 ; F. v. M. Fragm. i. 58. 



Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Brown ; Burdekin River, F. v. Mueller; Bloom- 

 field and Palmer Blvere, Princess Charlotte Bay, Roth. 



Tuber eaten roasted or raw, Roth. 



18. CEROPEGIA, Linn. 



(Literally a fountain of wax.) 



'6orolla with a distinct often elongated tube usually swollen at the base ; 

 lobes acute or acuminate, incurved and connivent or cohering at the tips, valvate 

 in the bud. Corona inserted on the gynostegium, campanulate or rotate at the 

 base, with 10 or 15 lobes in 2 rows (or rarely only 5), the inner ones usually 

 longer acuminate and connivent over the gynostegium. Anthers without any 

 terminal membrane. Pollen-masses 2 to each anther, erect or incurved. Stigma 

 obtuse. — Stems usually twining from a tuberous rhizome. Leaves membranous 

 or fleshy. Flowers often few and rather large, in axillary or interpetiolar cyHies 

 or umbels. 



A consi.lerable genus, widely spread over tropical Asia and Africa, although rare in the Indian 

 Archipelago. The only Australian species is one of the few from the latter region, — Benth. ■ 



1. C Cumingiana (after Hugh Cuming), Bene, in DC. Prod. viii. 643 ; Benth. 

 Fl. Austr. iv. 348. A glabrous twiner. Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, always 

 cordate at the base, shortly and acutely acuminate, thin and membranous when 

 dry, penniveined, 3 to 4in. long, on petioles of \ to l^^in. Flowers rather 

 numerous in the typical specimen, few in the Australian one, in a shortly- 

 branched cyme sometimes contracted into an umbel, the common peduncle 

 usually longer than the petiole, the pedicels from, | to lin. long. Calyx- 

 segments subulate-aeuminate, 1 to IJ line long. Corolla- tube lin. long, including 

 the campanulate throat, which spreads to iin. diameter ; lobes shorter than that 

 diameter, broad, acute, erect, arcuate and cohering at the tips. Corona loosely 

 campanulate at the base, with 10 short lanceolate or oblong outer lobes in pairs 

 usually sprinkled with a few long hairs, and 5 inner linear ones, twice as long as 

 the outer ones and connivent over the gynostegium or cohering at the tips. 

 Follicles (in the Philippine Island plant) very long and linear. — F. v. M. Fragm. 

 V. 159. 



Hab.: Near Somerset, Cape York, Jardine, a single specimen in Herb. F. v. Mueller. 



Also in the Philippine Islands. The glabrous stems, cordate leaves, and small calyx-segments, 

 readily distinguish this species from all others in the Kew collections. On comparing the 

 gynostegium and corona of the Australian and Philippine speoiments, I find no difference ; the 

 outer corona-lobes are very slightly hairy in both, although the hairs are sometiniea reduced to 

 1 or 2 to each lobe. The Javanese plant figured as G. Cumingiana in Bot. Mag. t. 4349, differs 

 in the corolla-tube densely hairy inside, the lobes much longer and acuminate, and in the much 

 more clavate inner corona-segments, and appears to be the C. curviflora, Hassk., altered to C. 

 Horsfieldiana, by Miquel, Fl. Brit. Ind. Bat. ii. 528, the only species hitherto found in Java.— 

 Smth. ■' 



