48 NEW OR RARE MALAYAN PLANTS. 



This very curious little plant is the first species of 

 the genus recorded from Borneo, the other two species 

 being natives of Nepal and Kedah. This little plant 

 is remarkable for possessing a very narrow spathe and 

 a long slender appendage with no trace of flowers on it, 

 and only a few irregular male flowers on the base. In 

 the other species the male flowers occur to the top or 

 nearly to the top of the spadix and the appendage is 

 very short. The slender white spadices are usually 

 deflexed and lie on the ground, looking like white roots. 



Alocasia Villeneuvei. 



This aroid is very common in Sarawak especially on 

 the hills of Matang and elsewhere, and the plants 

 often attain a large size. The flowers of it have never 

 been described. I was fortunate in finding it well in 

 flower in August 1905. The peduncle of the inflor- 

 escence is 6 inches or more tall but deeply sunk in the 

 petiole sheaths, it is pale green in colour. The spathe 

 is pure white, the swollen part of the base 1^ inch long 

 and nearly an inch in diameter. The ovate lanceolate 

 acute and cuspidate limb is 2^ inches long and 1-J inch 

 wide white. The spadix is sessile 4 inches long. The 

 pistils subglobose with the stigmas on a short thick 

 distinct style. They are round, oblong or ovate|aDd wide 

 white. There are no abortive flowers mixed with them 

 as is often the case in other species. Above them are 

 some abortive female flowers. The male portion 

 appears above the tube, it is only half an inch long 

 the flowers close packed crenulate. The appendix is 

 cylindric and obtuse reticulate, cream colored. The 

 fruiting spadices are white. The spadices shortly after 

 opening were found to be swarming with dipterous 

 larvae. In large plants the inflorescences are numerous. 



Alocasia Beccarii, Engler. 



Is an anomalous species in many ways, in its 

 creeping rhizome and entire leaves. I found it as 

 before on Serapi, the top of Mt. Matang. It was in 



Jour. Straits Branch 



