120 NEW OR RAKE MALAYAN PLANTS 



their anthers at first up-curved, but ere long they fall 

 and lie on the lower face of the tube. The stigma is then 

 not fully developed and not half as big as it eventually 

 becomes. The stamens dihisce, and produce a quantity 

 of white pollen when they are in a prone position. The 

 flowers are now visited by the very small Trigdna (Tr 

 ruficornis). These hover about the stamens, then settle 

 and gather pollen, rise hover again and resettle. Oc- 

 casionally they rest on the stigma, and deposit pollen 

 thereon. Usually however the stigma is not developed 

 till the next day, when the pollen is all gone, and if there 

 has been rain, wet and spoilt, for it has no protection. 

 On the second day, the stigma is fully developed, and has 

 attained its full size. I have seen no other insect at the 

 flower, though I watched for hawkmoths for a long time 

 in the evening, none visited it. 



The fruit is six inches long surrounded at the base by 

 the thick green overlapping calyx lobes. These are ellip- 

 soid rounded at the top and elevated in the centre, 3 

 inches long by 2 inches wide. The fruit is cone-shaped 

 with a blunt top, polished lead-colour. When ripe it 

 dehisces at the top into five lobes, covered with a sweet 

 orange pulp in which the seeds are imbedded. This pulp 

 is evidently derived from the placenta. The fruit often 

 splitting and leaving the placenta erect in ' the centre 

 and covered with the small seeds imbedded in the pulp. 

 The pulp is sweetish with a strong unpleasant bitter taste 

 and is very attractive to birds and ants. The seeds are 

 irregularly angled, and finely reticulate. The seeds 

 when deposited on a tree trunk germinate and the little 

 plants as they grow emit long olive yellow roots like those 

 of an orchid, which run upwards and downwards on the 

 tree trunk, for a length of 6 or 8 feet or more. The 

 plant branches from the base sending out 2 or more 

 stems. Eventually it appears either to kill the tree or 

 descend to the ground forming a tree of some size. The 

 largest plant in the gardens has layered itself from one 

 of the branches. 



Jour. Straits Branch. 



