THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
323 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PAPUAN FAGRAEA. 
By Baron Feed. Von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S. &c. 
Fagraea Woodiana. 
Branchlets quite robust; leaves very large, chartaceous, gradually narrowed 
downward and decurrent along the whole petiole, prominently costate-nerved, 
paler beneath, shining on neither page ; petiole at the base broadly dilated, 
clasping with two posteriorely rounded stipular plates and anteriorely much pro- 
tracted into a bilobed broad lamina ; cymes considerably shorter than the leaves ; 
general peduncle much abbreviated ; pedicels hardly as long as the calyx or 
somewhat shorter ; tube of the latter scarcely longer than the lobes ; corolla rather 
large, its tube slender and not much exceeding in length the cuneate-oval lobes, 
but several times longer than the calyx ; stamens not reaching to the summit of 
the corolla-lobes ; ovary gradually attenuated into the style, comparatively slender. 
At the base of the Owen Stanley’s Ranges ; H. O. Forbes (744). The 
whole plant glabrous. Leaves inclusive of the petiolar base attaining a length 
of fully one foot and a breath of six inches. Stipular portion about § inch 
broad and long ; lateral nerves distant ; veins and veinlets concealed. Cyme 
trichotomous. Calyx during anthesis not fully half an inch long, its lobes 
rounded-blunt. Corolla 2— 2| inches long, the colour not recognisable in the 
dried state of the flowers, the tube not much widened upwards. Anthers about 
j inch long. Style nearly as long as the corolla. Fruit yet unknown. 
This species agrees almost in size, form and basal dilatation of leaves with F. 
auriculata ; but the stipular base is still more produced upwards, the texture of the 
leaves is considerably thinner, they are also still more decurrent into the leafstalk and 
are much stronger nerved ; besides the flowers are far more numerous and of much 
less size, while the corolla is upwards proportionately less widened. From 
the imperfectly known F. fastigiata our new plant differs already in the much more 
dilated stipular portion of the leaves and in less angular peduncles ; the 
fruit will afford probably other means of distinguishing the two. 
Not dissimilar to F. Zeilanica of Blurne, if the basal dilatation of the leaf- stalk 
is left out of consideration; — but quite unlike Thunberg’s F. Zeilanica, as 
figured by Lamarck (illustr. des genres pi, 167), to which possibly Thwaites* 
F. obovate may be referable, while the real plant of that name, as 
originally defined by Wallich, seems to accord with Blume’s F. crassifolia, 
and approaches also Wight’s F. Malabarica, these three having the leaf-nerves 
concealed or only very faintly visible. The genuine F. Coromandelina, doubtfully 
included by Clarke in F. obovata, has the leaves (according to Wight’s 
delineation) very distinctly nerved, a characteristic of leading specific value in 
this genus. All these congeners can perhaps be much better set out specifically, 
when opportunities arise for seeing the form and colour and for investigating 
the structure of the matured fruit in each instance, that of Blume’s F. 
Zeilanica being shown as thickly rostrate. To this plant, as regards size and 
form of fruits and also of leaves, respond specimens, sent from near the 
Astrolabe-Range by the Rev. J ames Chalmers ; but the petioles of his plant are 
longer and the cyme is more ample. A Fagraea, collected by Dr. Guppy in the 
Solomon-Islands, has the fruit only minutely apiculate. 
I have bestowed on this very conspicuous plant the name of Harry Wood 
Esq., Under- Secretary of the Department of Mines and Forests in Sydney, who 
amidst the arduous duties of his responsible position still managed, to advance 
also the cause of geography as Chairman of the Exploration- Committee of the 
Australian Geographic Society, and thus promoted simultaneously the interests of 
the discoverer of this Fagraea. The flowers of all species of this genus as 
highly fragrant serve for cosmetic purposes, while the bark of some is 
drawn into medicinal use. 
