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Rhizophoraceae 



by Johs. Schmidt. 



The Rhizophoraceae of our area are 8 and except one species, 

 Carallia integer rima, which grows in the inland jungle, confined 

 to the sea-shores and estuaries of rivers, forming the bulk of the 

 mangroves or tidal-forests so characteristic to Eastern tropical 

 coasts. Along the shores of the Gulf of Siam the mangrove is very 

 luxuriant and nearly all the species generally recorded from the 

 tropics of the Old World occur here. Of the Rhizophoraceae 1 ) only 

 one or two species (Kandelia Rheedii W. and Arn. and Bruguiera 

 parviflora W. and Arn., see below) are wanting in the Siamese 

 mangrove. As to Kandelia Rheedii it is said by S chimp er (in 

 Engler und Prantl Nat. Pflanzenfam. Ill, 7, p. 52) to occur from India 

 to Hongkong and it is also quoted from the Malay Archipelago 2 ) ; 

 so we might expect to find it in the Gulf of Siam, but although I 

 looked for it with great attention I was not fortunate enough to 

 find it. It is widely distributed along the shores of the Bay of 

 Bengal and is common in some places e. g. near Calcutta (according 

 to a private communication by Mr. G.B.Clarke); but East of the 

 Malay Peninsula it seems to be a rare plant and neither S chimp er a ) 

 nor Karsten 4 ), who lately studied the Indo-Malayan mangroves, 

 have found it. In a letter to me Mr. H. N. Ridley from Singapore 

 writes: „Kandelia Rheedii seems to be very rare in our region. I 

 have never been able to find it but once, in one of the rivers in 

 Johore". This is the nearest locality, that I know. 



I have examined the specimens of Kandelia Rheedii contained 

 in the Kew and Copenhagen herbaria. Those specimens doubtful 



l ) As to the circumscription of species I follow S c h i m per in his excellent 



work, Die Indo-Malayische Strandflora, Jena 1891. 

 2 j H en slow in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India II, p. 437. 



3 ) Indo-Malayische Strandflora. 



4 ) G. Karsten: Über die Mangrove-Vegetation im Malayischen Archipel, Biblio- 

 theca Botanica Heft °2% 1891. 



