210 THE BOTANY OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 



on both surfaces with pale bristles, especially abund- 

 ant on the midrib, back of the leaf covered with 

 small pustules, nerves 9 pairs ascending conspicuous, 

 4-inches long 1^ inches wide, petiole setulose ^-f 

 inch long. Raceme terminal 1 to 1-J inches long. 6-7 

 flowered, flowers opening singly, rachis setose. Bracts 

 J inch long lanceolate acuminate. Pedicel little longer. 

 Calyx split into five narrow lanceolate acuminate 

 lobes nearly to the- base ^ inch long glabrous. Corolla 

 one inch long hardly -J inch across tube narrow, 

 gradually dilated in the upper part sparingly pubescent 

 pure white. Stamens 4 equal, filaments long slender 

 glabrous, anthers lanceolate minutely cuspidate at 

 the tip, shortly prolonged into two blunt lobes at the 

 lease. Capsule woody narrow f inch long dilated up- 

 wards 1-2 seeded. 



This plant is very abundant on the lower terraces 

 below Phosphate Hill and beyond the Waterfall. I sup- 

 pose it to be the plant recorded in the Flora of 

 Christmas Island by Mr. Baker as Asy stasia coro- 

 mandeliana forma the distribution of which is given as 

 India and Malaya, Africa and Arabia. It would be in- 

 teresting to know where in Malaya this plant is wild. 

 It is often cultivated in gardens, and occasionally 

 escapes along road sides in villages and towns, but it 

 is certainly not native of the Malay Peninsula nor has 

 it even established itself as a denizen. The only species 

 of Asystasia which is indigenous to the Malay region 

 which I have ever seen or heard of is A. intrusa Nees, 

 which ranges from Celebes to Singapore, and the 

 Christmas Island plant is certainly allied to that species 

 and not to A. coromandeliana. I have a scrap of an 

 apparently identical plant from the Tenimber islands 

 (Timor Laut) collected by Mr. Pereira. The plant 

 differs altogether in habit from A. intrusa Nees, which 

 is a scrambling diffuse weed in hedges, and thickets and 

 in its larger pure white flowers, those of A. intrusa being 



Jour. Straits Branch 



