358 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



3-parted, spreading, segments round-ovate, thick ; aestivation 

 valvate. Stamineous column central, slender, expanding at 

 top into a peltate disk, whose edge is divided into 1^ or 15 

 rays to the lower surfaces of which are attached an equal 

 number of two-celled anthers. FEMALE. Fruit axillary, 

 generally solitary, hanging, oblong-oval, considerably smaller 

 than an olive, somewhat pulverulent and rusty, bursting into 

 two valves. Nut invested by a thin aril, which is laciniate 

 only at the top. Seed with ruminate albumen. 



Obs. — The seed has a pungent taste and slightly aromatic 

 smell. Mr. Brown has recognized the propriety of separat- 

 ing Knema from Myristica. 



LIV. ASARIN.E 



ARISTOLOCHIA HASTATA. (W, J.) 



Gynandria Hexandria. N. O. Aristolochice. 



Foliis hastato-trilobis glabris, racemis axillaribus, perian- 

 thio basi-inflato, lamina erecta elliptica marginibus revolutis. 



Found at Natal on the west coast af Sumatra. 



SufFrutescent, Branches long, spreading over the neigh- 

 bouring shrubs, but not twining, angulate, jointed, smooth. 

 Leaves alternate, petiolate, from six to ten inches long, 

 hastately three-lobed, middle lobe elongated and terminat- 

 ing in a blunt acumen, very entire, very smooth, five-nerved 

 and strongly veined. Petioles two inches long, thick, round, 

 channeled above. Racemes axillary, longer than the petioles. 

 Flowers alternate, pedicellate, somewhat distichous ; rachis 

 flexuose. Perianth superior, purplish red, smooth without, 

 inflated at the base into an ovate six-angled ventricle, from 

 which rises an ascending infundibuliform curved tube with 

 revolute margin ; lamina erect, elliptic, revolute at the sides, 

 tomentose on the inner surface, as is also the inside of the 



