Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 321 
Distbib. Indo-China, from the Andamans and Tenasserim to Cochin 
China, Hongkong. 
The two varieties distinguished in the Flora of British India can no longer be 
maintained in view of the large suites of specimens reported of late years from the 
Andamans, where the species is exceedingly common. 
18. Lettsomia, Roxb. 
Scandent, more or less hirsute or strigose shrubs. Leaves cordate 
rounded or truncate. Flowers in axillary, peduncled, corymbose or 
capitate cymes ; bracts conspicuous. Sepals 5, orbicular or elliptic ; 
somewhat thickened and coriaceous in fruit. Corolla usually pink ; tube 
infundibuliform-campanulate ; limb plicate, very shortly 5-lobed. 
Stamens 5, exserted or included; anthers oblong or linear, straight. Disk 
annular or cupular. Ovary 2-eelled ; ovules 4 ; style filiform ; stigma 
2-globose. Fruit a dry berry. Seeds 4 or fewer, embedded in a 
mealy pulp. — Distbib. Species about 40, in tropical Africa and S.E. 
Asia. 
There is not, as the writer has already explained (Journ. As. Soc. Bmg. LXIII. 2, 91), 
any very good reason for retaining Lettsomia as a genus apart from Argyreia. In 
Argyreia the ovary is completely 4-celled ; in Lettsomia it is 2-celled, but not infre- 
quently a partial dissepiment of smaller or larger size is to be found at the base of, 
sometimes half-way up, the cell. 
Capsule chartaceous ; seeds usually 4, only casually fewer ; 
leaves cordate, softly hairy; cymes capitate; bracts large, 
elliptic-oblong, sub-persistent . . . . .. 1. L. peguensis. 
Capsule coriaceous or sometimes somewhat fleshy ; seeds usually 
1, only casually 2 : — 
Cymes compact ; bracts large, persistent : — 
Cymes capitate, globose ; bracts purple, large, orbicular- 
obtuse; leaves ovate-lanceolate, sparingly adpressed-hirsute 2. L. sphcerocepliala. 
Cymes sub-capitate, hardly globose ; bracts ovate or ovate- 
lanceolate, acute ; leaves ovate or elliptic, base rounded or 
shortly cuneate : — 
Corolla 2-25 in. long; leaves chartaceous, glabrous 
and shining above, a few hairs on petiole and midrib 
beneath . . . . . . ■ • .. 3. L. Maingayi. 
Corolla 1-25 in. long ; leaves firmer, glabrous not shining 
above, hirsute beneath : — 
Leaves hirsute, more especially on the nerves, beneath ; 
petioles sparingly hairy .. .. ..4. L. Ridley i. 
Leaves densely hirsute beneath throughout; petioles f 4a. L. Ridleyi. 
densely hairy . . . • • • • • I var. velutina . 
Cymes lax ; bracts small, rarely with a casual foliaceous 
bract in a cyme, and usually caducous : — 
Sepals narrowly lanceolate, acute, spreading or sub- 
reflexed in fruit ; bracts lanceolate, occasionally one 
large and leaf-like ; leaves elliptic, softly hairy on both 
surfaces .. .. •• •• .. 5. L. adpressa. 
