THE MALAY PENINSULA. 97 
base. Flowers numerous small nodding white. Lower bracts 
long narrow lanceate half an inch long upper ones smaller, Pedi- 
cels very short nodding. Sepals and petals white spreading ovate, 
petals rounder and blunter. Staminal ring not much elevated 
round, anther cells parallel. Ovary half inferior, ovules about 
five ina cell. Style stout cylindrical, stigmas recurved. Seeds 
rather smaller than in most kinds, two or three developed. 
Perak. Thaiping Hills from 1500 to 4500 feet altitude ; 
Penang Hill at 2000 feet ait. in dense jungle. , 
This pretty plant is easily known by its tall graceful spike 
of small white nodding flowers. The ovary is unlike that of any 
other of our species in being half inferior, the staminal ring 
being adnate to it for half its height. 
P. grandifolia n. sp. 
Rhizome subterranean, Leaves very large and stiff coria- 
ceous deep green; petiole six inches long + inch through, dull 
bluish green, blade oblanceolate tapering into the petiole, 
apex cuspidate, over a foot long and six inches wide, deep polished 
green above, duller beneath plicate, raised nerves 13, transverse 
nervules conspicuous. Raceme six inches long floriferous to the 
base, rachis stout pale green 4 inch through at the base. 
Flowers nodding solitary in the bracts. Bracts lanceolate obtuse 
whitish + of an inch long, longer than the short decurved pedicel 
(4 inch long ). Inner bracts lanceolate as long as the pedicel. 
Sepals and petals almost exactly similar ovate obtuse } inch long 
pale waxy yellow. Staminal ring adnate to the perianth not 
much elevated, anthers broader than in most species light brown. 
Style very stout no taller than the stamens, top broad, stig- 
mas recurved linear, ovary obconic quite inferior. 
Locality uncertain ; from the jungles of the Malay Peninsula, 
cultivated in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. 
Easily distinguished by its very large leaves and short 
raceme of yellow flowers, with a quite inferior ovary. 
P. stellaris. n. sp. 
Rhizome ascending, about two inches long. Leaves several, 
petiole three inches long, flat above, the back rounded and 
winged for yart of its length, blade lanceolate acuminate with 
waved edges, subcoriaceous, deep dull green, five-ribbed, four 
inches in length and one inch across. Raceme two inches long 
with a stout rachis the base nearly covered with lanceolate 
