4G2 Botanical Notes. [No. 5. 



Besides these, two of the most abundant and remarkable trees were 

 those called by the Burmese Jfamanay, and Myouk Kyan. The 

 former (Gmelina arborea) is a tree of middle size (fifty to sixty feet) 

 with a diameter of perhaps two to two half feet, a rather short 

 trunk, and singular meazly bark, covered with depressed scar-like 

 spots, by which the tree is at once recognized. It was in full 

 flower, and the ground was strewed with the fallen Corollas every 

 morning. I have good dried specimens of it. The latter, Myouk- 

 Jcyaiv, Homalium tomentosum, meaning the monkey slipping tree, is 

 so called, because not even a monkey can climb it. This pecu- 

 liarity arises from the smooth lively green bark being covered with 

 a white pulverulent substance, which comes off upon the hands, 

 when an attempt is made to grasp the trunk ; so that neither man 

 nor monkey can succeed in climbing it. For the same reason, 

 epiphytes cannot attach themselves to this tree. Not an orchid, 

 nor a moss, nor so much as a lichen, is ever seen upon it, unless by 

 chance a plant becomes lodged in a fork, which I once only noticed 

 in the case of a bunch of Cymbidium aloifolium. The tree is tall, 

 about eighty feet high, with a diameter of not more than eighteen 

 inches, or, at the most, two feet, and has a straight trunk, destitute 

 of branches up to a considerable height. The foliage is scanty. 

 Mr. Mason, in his book on the Natural Productions of Burmah 

 calls it " Tenasserim Lancewood" and thinks it is a species of 

 Dalberyia, but the leaves are simple and alternate, not pinnate or 

 compound. The undergrowth, in these jungles, where abundant, 

 consists in great part of the following : Euphorbiacem (this order is 

 largely prevalent) ; Ranclia, Gardenia, Ixora, Morinda, Bavetta In- 

 dica, Mussaenda Wallichii, and other Cinclionacece ; Connarus, 

 Boivrea, Combretum, Unona, Uvaria, Melastoma MalabatTiricum, 

 Memecylon ramiflorum, Leea, Helicteres, Ardisia villosa, and A. 

 umbellata, Clerodendron nutans, and infortunatum ; Barringtonia 

 aculanyula, JLrythroxylon laurifolium, Urtica, Hibiscus, &c. The 

 most strikingly abundant of these are Mussoenda Wallichii, Mela- 

 stoma Malabathricum, and Clerodendron infortunatum. 



The herbaceous plants are mostly gregarious Acanthacece in the 

 dry and hilly parts, and Zingiberacece in the damp valleys. One 

 large species Zingiber squarrosum (?) is the most abundant of these. 



