Two new Triuridaceae, with some Remarks on the 
Genus Sciaphila, Blume. 
BY 
W. ROTTING HEMSLEY, F.R.S., F.L.S. 
Keeper of the Herbarium and Library , Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew. 
With Plates IX and X. 
B LUME, in 3825, described a plant from Java under the name of 
Sciaphila tenella , the first member recorded of the singular group 
now known as the Triuridaceae. In 1851 he published an amplified 
description of the genus with incomplete descriptions of two proposed 
additional species. Since then botanists have described species, which 
they have referred to Sciaphila , from Ceylon, North-east India, Japan, the 
Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, New Guinea and New Caledonia, Brazil 
and Venezuela ; making a total of about thirty species, most of which have 
been well figured. Studying these figures in connexion with the specimens 
of a plant of this natural order discovered by Mr. H. P. Thomasset in 
Mahe, Seychelles, I have been struck by the very great diversity in their 
floral structure, and I cannot myself accept the view that they all belong to 
one and the same genus. I do not propose making generic alterations 
from the figures alone, and I have not time to examine the whole of the 
materials ; but I will discuss some of the various modifications in the 
structure or composition of the flowers, and compare the Seychelles plant 
with Sciaphila tenella. 
All the members of the Triuridaceae are saprophytes or holosapro- 
phytes, as Johow terms them, mostly having hairy roots, and they are 
very similar in aspect, being very slender, often almost capillary, and 
white, yellow, pink, coral-red, purple or violet in colour, with small scales 
in the place of leaves. They are mostly from 5 to 1 5 cm. high ; but 
Spruce notes that Sciaphila purpurea , Benth., sometimes attains a height of 
1*4 m. The usually unisexual flowers are small, occasionally very small ; 
that is not more than -5 mm. in diameter. The perianth is always 
regular, simple or uniseriate, with valvate segments nearly uniform in size 
and shape. 
Taking Sciaphila , as limited or accepted by Bentham and Hooker, 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXI. No. LXXXI. January, 1907.] 
