88 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
agglutinated by their edges, and that they do not open even at 
the summits until some time after impregnation, and then they 
gradually become separated at their edges to the base, after 
which, in time, they fall off. There seems to have been a general 
conviction among botanists, that in Gomphandra the anthers are 
pilose ; this is so stated by Endlicher and Wight, but in every 
instance I have found the clavate hairs that form a hooded crest 
over the anthers all spring from the filaments. Dr. W ight, in 
his ' leones,^ represents the male plant in this species as having 
beardless stamens (see figs. 1 & 4. tab. 953), and it is worthy of 
note that the ovarium is here depicted as being ovuligerous 
(see fig. 6) : the female plant in plate 954 has bearded stamens 
with a fertile ovarium, the progress of the development of which, 
to the state of ripened fruit, is here shown : it has hence been 
inferred by that distinguished botanist, that the occurrence of 
bearded or beardless stamens constitutes a true sexual distinc- 
tion. My observation upon dried specimens leads me to an 
opposite conclusion, for I find in every instance I have examined, 
that the stamens are bearded even in the male flowers, that is to 
say, where the ovarium has been quite sterile : and even in what 
are called female flowers, that is, where the ovarium is ovuli- 
gerous, the stamens are equally barbed, w'hether the anthers be 
charged with pollen or filled only wfith a grumous mass. I am 
therefore led to the irresistible conclusion, that the plant figured 
by Dr. Wight as the male plant of Gomphandra polymorpha 
belongs to a distinct genus, being a species of Blume’s Platea, 
which will be hereafter described. As additional evidence in 
favour of this conclusion, I may mention the fact, that Dr. Wight 
describes the male plant in plate 953 as flowering in the months 
of March and April, and the female plant in plate 954 as having 
its fruit ripened in the same months : this would occiu' probably 
alone on the supposition that the fruit was the production of a 
previous yeai’^s growdh. 
Among the Ceylon collection of the late Mr. Gardner (no. 102) 
is a plant which I take to be the variety longifolius of this spe- 
cies : it is certainly different from the longifolius of Dr. Wallich^s 
collection, which wall be presently described ; the leaves are here 
of a light pallid green •, two or three short dichotomous racemes 
grow out of each axil ; the calyx is entire, but the petals and sta- 
mens have all fallen away ; the ovarium is long and cylindrical, 
and is terminated by a flattened 5-lobed disk, which considerably 
exceeds in diameter that of the ovarium ; it is 1-celled, with two 
large ovules suspended from near the summit of the caifity : on 
account of the clavate form of the ovarium this affords a good 
illustration of Dr. Wallich’s genus Gomphandra, and is well 
