342 Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



extreme minuteness of the ovary prevented me from satisfac- 

 torily ascertaining its structure. 



XLVIIL BEGONIACEiE. 



BEGONIA. Linn. 



The island of Sumatra abounds with Begoniae, a tribe of 

 plants which are chiefly found in moist shady situations at 

 the foot of hills and in the recesses of forests. Being suc- 

 culent herbs, they are with difficulty preserved in herbaria, 

 and the specimens are frequently deficient in one or other 

 of the parts of fructification. Descriptions from the living 

 plants in their native soil are therefore particularly desir- 

 able, and in this view the following account of the species 

 which have fallen under my observation will not be uninter- 

 esting. They seem to differ from all those described by Mr. 

 Dryander in the 1st Volume of the Linnean Transactions, 

 and no great additions have been since made to our know- 

 ledge of the genus. 



BEGONIA CAESPITOSA. (W. J.) 



Subacaulis, foliis inequaliter cordatis angulatis acuminatis 

 glabris, pedunculis dichotome cymosis, capsulae alis equali- 

 bus obtusangulis v. rotundatis. 



At Bencoolen. 



Nearly stemless. Leaves petiolate, oblique, cordate at 

 the base with rounded slightly unequal lobes overlapping 

 each other a little, somewhat falcate, rounded and sublobate 

 on one side, straighter on the other^ attenuated into a long- 

 acumen or point, spinulose but scarcely serrated on the 

 margin, smooth, shining above, pale and punctato-papillose 

 beneath ; nerves 5 — 9, branched towards the margin. The 



