Fruit of Burbidgea. 



The dispersal of seed in the order Scitamineae seems to be 

 nearly always affected by the aid of animals. Thus in the 

 Catimbium section of AJpinia we find the globose capsule of- 

 ten of a bright orange color. It partly dehisces and discloses 

 the small hard aromatic seed, enclosed in a sweet white aril, 

 popular with many animals and birds. In the smaller Alpini- 

 as of the Hellenia section, the whole fruit is pulpy, red or 

 black, a berry in fact attractive to birds. 



In the epiphytic and also in some at least of the terres- 

 trial HedycJiiums, the capsule which is of a bright orange 

 color dehisces and the valves spreading disclose the seed wrap- 

 ped in a brilliant read pulpy aril. The Amomums and other 

 Scitamineae with radical inflorescence, have usually dull color- 

 ed, green or brownish fruit, borne on the short peduncles close 

 to the ground occasionally the fruit is brilliantly colored 

 red, and ornamented with processes of various forms, and 

 these appear to be chiefly dispersed by rats or other small ter- 

 restrial mammals. Phaeomeria (Nicolaia) has its fruits borne 

 in a close set head on the top of the stout peduncle usually about 

 two feet tall. In most species the fruit are dull green orbrown, 

 though in N. venusta they are bright red and conspicuous, 

 but in all cases squirrels or rats seem to be the dispersers of 

 the seed, gnawing the pericarp and scattering the seed to some 

 distance. 



In Burbidgea. we have an entirely different system, the 

 seeds being adapted for wind dispersal, and it is the only case 

 of such modification known to me in the order. 



Burbidgea is a genus peculiar to Borneo, apparently 

 always terrestrial, with stems of about 2 feet or less in height, 

 which bear a raceme of red flowers resembling those of a 

 Hedychiimi. The capsules are cylindric, li inches long and 

 i inch through, pubescent, at first green then becoming 

 brown, the pericarp thin and papery. When ripe the 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 53. 1909. 



