42 DB. H. F. HANCb'S SUPM-BMENT TO 



♦SmUax China, lAnn. ; Kunth, Emm. Plant, v. 243. (=S. ferox, Wall, ; 

 Benth. Fl. Hongk. 370.) 

 There is, I believe, no doubt of Wallicb's plant being identical 

 with that of Linnaeus, which supplies a part at least of the " China 

 root " of commerce. It is gratifying to be able to quote, in sup- 

 port of this opinion, so high an authority as Mr. Daniel Hanbury, 

 who has lately informed me that the examination of a great many 

 specimens fully convinces him that it is well founded. 



* Commelyna. 



Mr. C. B. Clarke, in a valuable paper " On the CommelynaeesB 

 of Bengal" (Journ. Linn. Soc. xi. 442), says that the seeds of C. 

 salioifolia, Eoib., are smooth, those of O. eommtmis, Linn., reticu- 

 late ; both species have two of the cells 2-, the remaining one 1- 

 seeded. He transfers C caspitosa, Eoxb., as a synonym from the 

 former to the latter species. In C. henghalensis, Linn., I find the 

 seeds of a greyish-black colour, irregularly transversely rugose 

 oblong, rounded on the dorsal and flattened on the ventral face, 

 and with the embryo not opposite, biit lateral as regards the 

 linear hilum, to which, indeed, one side of its plumular extremity 

 is nearly contiguous. 



*Pollia sorzogonensis, EndL 



Mr. Clarke (1^ c.) not only combines with this, under the name 

 of P. indica, Thw., the Japanese P.japoniea, Kth. (which I have 

 also from Canton province), but also the Javan P. fhyrsiflora, 

 End!., the inflorescence of which is very different. The leaves of 

 the Hongkong plant are perfectly smooth, those of P. _;(^o««c« 

 extremely scabrous to the touch on both surfaces. 



42. Eriocaulon sexangulaxe, lAnn. ; Kunth, Enum. Plant, iii. 651 ; 

 Kmrn. Monogr. Eriocaul. 53. 



In sandy places by the sea, Kau-lung peninsula : discovered by 

 Mr. Sampson in Augiis* 1864. On the continent of India, in 

 Ceylon, the Philippines, Java, Japan, and Abyssinia. With 5- 

 nerved leaves, broader and longer than in Drs. Hooker and 

 Thomson's Malabar specimens. Kornicke records his variety 

 ,/3, vulfforis with 3-nerved leaves both from Japan and China (the 

 latter specimens, I presume, gathered by Meyen or Philippi, and 

 therefore from the south),, also (in Miq. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.- 

 Bat. iii. 162) the present form from Japan. 



43. Cypexvs castaneus, Willd. ; Nees in Wight, Contrib. 79 ; Kunth, 

 Enum. Plant, ii. 21. 



