52 xcv. ASCLBPiADEJ). (J. D. Hooker.) [BisoMcHa^ 



Peduncles 3 in. ; flowers subumbellate (in bud), white. Corolla subglobose. Coronal 

 aoales with very long narrow arms dilated at the tips ; pollen-masses subobovate,. 

 caudieles much dilated — Description from Griffith. 



DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 



D. "Wallichii, Wtffht Contrib. 43 ; Wall. Cat. 8183 ; Dene, in DC. Prodr. viii. 

 633 ; flowers and fruit unknown; is probably not a Dischidia. 



D. OLATATA, Wall. Cat. 4209, from Attran, is unknown to me ; I have not found it 

 in Wallich's Herbarium at the Linnean Society. 



44. KOVA, Br. 



Twining pendulous or rambling and rooting, rarely erect shrubs. Leaves- 

 opposite, thickly fleshy or very coriaceous. Flowms in axillary or terminal 

 umbels. CcHyx small, 5-partite. Corolla rotate, fleshy or waxy ; lobes 5, often 

 convex and spreading or reflexed, valvate in bud. Coronal-scales 5, large, 

 membranous fleshy or horny, adnate to the column, stellately spreading or 

 ascending, turgid or compressed laterally or vertically, often concave on the 

 upper surface, margins usually recurved so as to enclose a hollow space, the 

 inner angle often produced into a tooth' or spur which is erect or incumbent on 

 the anther. Column short ; anthers conniving over the stigma, membranous,, 

 tips inflexed or erect, rarely 0; pollen-masses various, solitary in each cell, 

 waxy, pediceUed, erect. Stigma included, flat or the centre apiculate. Follicles- 

 various, usually slender, acuminate, with a thin pericarp ; rarely turgid with 

 very thick walls. Seeds very small, ovate or linear-oblong ; coma long. Disxeib. 

 Species about 60 ; tropical Asiatic, Malayan, and Australian. 



A most difficult genus to describe from dried specimens. I am quite unable to- 

 adopt the sections established by Blume on the development of the coronal-processes. 

 The description of the nervation of the leaves applies to herbarium specimens solely. 

 The secondary nerves, and in most the primary, in perhaps all except B. coriacea, are 

 invisible in the living plants, and there is no exact line to be drawn between those 

 with 3-5 principal basal nerves, and those with alternate arched or straight, and more 

 or less horizontal nerves. The peduncle is in very many species persistent and peren- 

 nial, giving off a succession of flowers from tubercles towards its tip ; the result is a 

 cylindric thick end to the peduncle : it is not known whether this feature is common 

 to all the species, nor even whether it is constant in any. The incurved or recurved 

 form of the corolla probably affords a good character, but is lost in dried specimens. 

 The coronal-processes are greatly distorted in drying, and the characters I have drawn 

 from them must be accepted with reserve. The pollen-masses present great variations- 

 in size, form, and length of pedicels, and probably afford excellent characters. The 

 follicles present wonderful variations, from the most slender and terete with thin 

 pericarp of S. globulosa, to the thick cylindric with rounded lobed ends and exces- 

 sively thick pericarp of H. coronaiia. The seeds of all are very small for the Order. 



Sect. I. Crytoceras. Corolla reflexed, lobes longer than broad. Column 

 stipitate ; coronal-processes very long, erect, with a long spur diverging from 

 the base of each. 



1. H. multiflora, Blume Cat. Sort. Buit. 49, and Bijd. 1064. H. 

 coriacea, LiTidl. Bot. Beg. 1839, t. 18, not of Blume. Orytoceras reflexum, 

 Benn. Fl. Jav. 90, t. 21 . 0. floribundum, Maund Botanist, iv. t. 178. Cen- 

 trostemma multiflorum. Dene, in Ann. Sc, Nat. Ser. ii. ix. 272, and in DC. 

 Prodr. viii. 634 ; Blume Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 45 ; Bot. Mag. t. 5173. 0. 

 Lindleyanum, Dene, in DC. I. c. 



Malacca ; on Mt. Ophir, Maingay. Penanq {drawing in Herb. Kew). — Disteib. 

 Java, Borneo, Philippine Islds. 



