62 
Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants. 
This showy species is dedicated to the gentleman, under whose auspices 
the important travels of Mr. Goldie originated. It is closely allied to 
B, scandens (Willd. Sp. Plant, ii. 508); the tendrils are shorter, the 
vestiture darker, the bracts narrower, the teeth of the calyx much smaller, 
the petals not roundish, nor with suddenly narrowed base, nor silky 
inside, the fertile stamens less elongated. Comparison of the fruit is 
needed. 
The only other species, which among those known to me bears any 
close resemblance to ours, is one distributed under the name Phanera 
rufa Benth, from the Kbasian collections of Drs. Hooker and Thomson ; 
its leaves are larger and strongly nine-nerved, the tendrils are longer, 
the bracts broader, while the buds of the calyx are slightly acute not 
rounded-blunt. 
I cannot carry further the comparisons, having not seen any well- 
developed flowers of the Kbasian and Assam plant. The specific name 
of the latter cannot be maintained, inasmuch as a Brazilian species was 
described as B. rufa by Bongard (Memoir de I’Academ. Imper. des 
Scienc. de St. Petersburg, ser, vi. vol. iv. 116). 
B. piperifolia (Roxb. Plor. Ind. ii. 327) has the leaves more cleft at 
the summit, the flowers corymbose and on much longer pedicels, their 
indument paler, the ovary glabrous. 
B. ferruginea (Roxb. FL Ind. ii, 331) differs in its leaves not quite 
glabrous, cleft at the base and summit and narrower, in the paler and 
scantier silk of the racemes, the larger flowers, the broader stigma and 
probably in other respects. 
The foliage of B. Williamsii has considerable similarity to that of 
Barklya syringifolia (F. v. M. Fragm. Phytogr, Austral, i. 109, t. Hi.), 
which plant might readily be transferred to the tribe of Bauhiniese, more 
particularly as Oligostemon (Benth. et Hook. Gen, PL i. 570) among 
Cassiece has also the upper petal placed exteriorly. 
Sesbania aculeata. 
Persoon, Synops. Plant, ii. 316. 
Port Moresby ; Goldie, 
Abrus precatorius. 
Linne, Syst. Veg. ed. xii. 472. 
Hear Port Moresby ; Goldie, 
