22 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



Prio Hantu. Malay, 



On trees in the forests of Sumatra. Malacca, 

 This grows parasitic on trees in the form of a large irre- 

 gular tuber, fastening itself to them by fibrous roots, and 

 throwing out several branches above. The tuber is gene- 

 rally inhabited by ants, and hollowed by them into numer- 

 ous winding passages, which frequently extend a good way 

 along the branches also, giving them the appearance of be- 

 ing fistular. Leaves opposite, short-petioled, elliptic-obovate, 

 nearly obtuse, acute at the base, very entire, very smooth, 

 thick, with the midrib flattened, and a few inconspicuous 

 nerves. Stipules interpetiolar, linear. Flowers axillary, 

 sessile, generally aggregated on a double gemmaceous knob. 

 Calyx superior, very short, entire. Corolla white, tubular ; 

 limb four-cleft ; faux villous. Stamens alternate with the 

 segments of the coYoWdi] filaments scarce any. Ovary crown- 

 ed with a prominent umbilicate disk, disporous. Style 

 longer than the tube. Stigma of two revolute linear thick 

 lobes. Berry of a semipellucid reddish-yellow colour, ovate- 

 oblong, two-seeded. Seeds oblong, contained in a tough 

 integument, with the embryo in the axis of the albumen. 



Obs, — I am not aware that these two plants have been 

 described by any botanist since the time of Rumphius, or 

 that any conjecture has been made regarding their place and 

 family from his figure or description. From their common 

 habit as parasites, I should have been much inclined to place 

 them under one genus ; but the different number of seeds in 

 each, supported by the difference of a simple and bifid 

 stigma, seems to oppose this, while t'he distinction is further 

 confirmed by the different disposition and insertion of the 

 leaves, which in Hydnophytum are arranged precisely as 

 usual in the Rubiacece, but in Myrmecodia are crowded 

 round the thick fleshy branches in such a manner, that their 

 being really opposite is not immediately apparent, while 

 their insertion on their broad peltate bases is further peculiar. 



