THE GESNERACEiE OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 3 



corchorifolia a stout much branched woody shrub, with 

 flowers of the form of a snapdragon {Antirrhinum) the 

 upper and lower lips of the corolla being pressed together, 

 and some species such as D. pumila quite dwarf and stem- 

 less with short flowers, but with the pistil and stamens of 

 other species. D. Marina from Pahang is also quite ab- 

 normal having very small flowers borne on a short ped- 

 uncle adnate to the leaf petiole. This would perhaps 

 be better made into a distinct genus ; many of the other 

 species however fall into natural groups, such as the sec- 

 tion Heteroboea, shrublets with crowded rough leaves, 

 and large trumpet-shaped flowers slender axillary pedun- 

 cle. The plants of this section are almost confined to 

 the Peninsula disappearing north of Penang, and less 

 abundant in Borneo and Sumatra. 



Didiimocarpi seem more scanty in Borneo than in the Malay 

 Peninsula, and the sections most abundant there are 

 those that are rare here. A group of almost stemless little 

 plants, lanceolate or oblanceolate sometimes peltate 

 leaves and small violet or white flowers (§ Komp&oboea 

 of Clarke excluding D. Kompsoboea a plant closely allied 

 to D. platypus) is represented by D. heterophylla, D. per- 

 dita etc., in the Peninsula where they are characteristic 

 of the low country or bases of the hills, and several species 

 occur in the Natunas and Lingga Island. The low- 

 land SalicincB with narrow crowded leaves sometimes 

 deeply cut occur in Borneo as far as Labuk Bay and in 

 Lingga. These two groups are absent from the hill 

 forests of the interior above 1,000 feet elevation. 



The species of this genus are as k^al in their distri- 

 bution as those of Didissandra ; of forty-four species only 

 four have been met with outside the Pennisula and most 

 of the endemic species are only at present known from 

 single localities of small area. 



Chirita is a genus also of somewhat heterogeneous nature, 

 distinguished by its bifid style. The flowers are in 

 many species of an azure blue, an unusual color in the 

 order, and frequently have the mouth of the corolla 



R. A. Soc., No. 43,1905. 



