^14 Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



generic description is taken. I have since had an opportu- 

 nity of seeing these noble trees in their native forests, 

 but not at the time of flowering, and I am informed that 

 they do not bear above once in three or four years. Mr. 

 Colebrooke's description in the Asiatic Researches, of the 

 tree and fruit, is so complete, that I cannot do better than 

 copy it. 



" TrunJc arboreous. Bark brownish. Leaves, superior 

 alternate ; inferior ones opposite ; elliptic, obtusely acuminate, 

 parallel-veined, entire, smooth ; three to seven inches long : 

 one or two broad. Petiole short. Stipules in pairs, subulate, 

 caducous. Perianth one-leaved, five-parted, persistent. 

 Capsule superior, ovate, woody, fibrous, finely streaked with 

 longitudinal furrows, embraced at the base by the calycine 

 hemispherical cup, and surrounded by its enlarged leaflets, 

 which are converted into a large, foliaceous, spatulate, rigid, 

 reflex wings, one-celled : three-valved. Seed solitary, conform 

 to the cavity of the capsule. Integument simple, thin, mem- 

 branaceous, thickened along one side, and thence penetrating 

 to the axis, and continued between the interior fold of the 

 cotyledons. Perisperm none. Embryo conform to the seed, 

 inverse, milk-white. Cotyledons two, unequal, almond — fleshy 

 thick, chrysaloid — contortuplicate ; the exterior one larger, 

 convolute, and cherishing the interior one, smooth without, 

 wrinkled within : the interior one much smaller, wrinkled on 

 both sides, uniform or round cordate (as is the exterior one, 

 if its folds be expanded). Plumule simple, coni^jal, two-leaved. 

 Radicle near the summit towards the back, columnar, a 

 little curved, and ending in a short conical lip ; ascending." 

 As. Res. XII. p. 539. 



To this accurate and ample description, I can only add 

 the particulars which the examination of flowering specimens 

 has enabled me to supply. The flowers are terminal and 

 axillary, forming a kind of panicle at the extremity of the 



