NEW OR RARE MALAYAN PLANTS. 25 



plant well worthy of cultivation but I have failed to 

 succeed in establishing it. 



Microcarpcea muscosa, R. Br. 



A small herb forming large tufts of a bright green 

 colour under water in shallow spots. Stems one to 4 

 inches tall succulent glabrous, leaves -fa to long 

 opposite oblong blunt. Flowers axillary solitary sessile 

 very small. Calyx tubular five toothed, teeth acute erect, 

 at length spreading pubescent. Corolla tube cylindric 

 shorter pale, limb hardly projecting beyond the calyx, 

 violet 5-lobed, four short acute, one longer linear oblong 

 all fringed with white hairs. Stamens fertile 2 includ- 

 ed, anthers 1-celled yellow, no staminodes. Style shorter 

 than the calyx with a curved lateral stigma. Capsule 

 much shorter than the calyx tube oblong ovoid dehis- 

 cing into two valves. Seeds oblong elliptic ocreous 

 rugose. 



Singapore : on the edge and shallow water of the 

 Reservoir. September 1906. 



This curious little plant has not previously been re- 

 corded from the Malay peninsula, but is known from 

 India, Java and Australia, Griffith, (Notulae Asiaticse IV. 

 101. Ic. PL As. t. 417. f. 2). describes a species as 

 M. dianclra from Bengal which Hooker in the Flora of 

 British India is doubtful about because Griffith says 

 that the calyx is 5-fid, Griffith's rough sketch of the 

 structure of the flower is however very good as far as it 

 goes, showing the curious corolla lobes, one of which is 

 linear oblong and much longer than the others which 

 are small and nearly equal, a point overlooked in all 

 descriptions of the plant, and further he shows the 

 curious processes which terminate and fringe the lobes 

 of the corolla, nor is he altogether wrong about the 

 calyx being deeply cleft. The sepals are indeed con- 

 nate to near the tip where the five lobes are free and 

 in fruit spread out starwise, but they are so slightly 



R. A. Soc, No. 49, 1907. 



