Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants, 23 
PhYLLANTHUS BUXIFOLIUS. 
Reinwardt in Blume’s Catalogus van eenige ge-vvassen in’s Lands Plantentuin te 
Buitenzorg, 1823, p. 106, 
On Baxter’s River ; Rev. S. Macfarlane. 
The specimens from this large stream as well as others, gathered by 
Mr. Fitzalan in Lieut. Smith’s exploration of the mstuary of the River 
Burdekin, are not in fruit, but otherwise accord fullv with Javanese 
specimens, marked as a new species of Scepasma in Zollinger’s collection. 
Miquel already (Flora Indise Batavje i. p. ii. 379) gives the measurement 
of the leaves as ranging from J to 1 inch. 
Dr. Scheffer (Annal. Hort. Bot. Buitenzorg, 1876, p. 48) adds the 
two following Euphorbiaceae for New Guinea : 
Alchornea Javensis, J. Miill. in Linnsea xxxiv. 170. 
Mallotus tiliifolius, J, Mull. 1. c. 190. 
Ach. Richard records : Euphorbia pilulifera, L. amoen. acad. iii, 114. 
LEGUMINOSJ5. 
Cassia Javanica. 
Linue Spec. Plant. 379. 
On the Fly-River ; Rev. S. Macfarlane. 
For the identification of this Papuan Cassia I have relied on Wight’s 
drawing, published in the leones Plant. Indise, t. 252, in the absence of 
original specimens. The plant, brought by the zealous missionary, was 
not in fi'uit ; leaves and flowers however agree with the illustration 
quoted, but the more decidedly renate stipules point towards C. mega- 
lantha (Decaisn. Annal. du Mus. 136). The range of variability of these 
Cassias, known to be very wide in some Australian species, is as yet not 
sufficiently ascertained. Bentham, in his full monography of this large 
genus (Transact, of the Linnean Society of London xxvii. 517), lays 
stress on veinless petals for the diagnosis of C. Javanica in contrast to 
some species from tropical Africa j but in the delineation quoted above, 
and seemingly emanating from Roxburgh, the petals are strongly veined, 
and so they are also in our Papuan plant. The color of the flowers 
distinguish this magnificent Cassia from all hitherto-known Australian 
species; still perhaps this, like so many other Malayan and Papuan 
plants, may also stretch across to the little explored jungles of North- 
East Australia. 
