Gnetum , with some Notes on the Structure of Inflorescence. 607 
situated at an elevation of about 2,000-2,500 ft. among the hills which 
separate the low-lying coast-belt from the edge of the central African 
plateau. G. Buchholzianum , also a climber, is known from a few localities 
in the Kameruns (Abo, Yaunde, Johann- Albrechtshohe). No other species 
are at present known to occur in Africa. G . scandens is a widely dis- 
tributed Asiatic species ; it extends eastwards from the Bombay Presidency 
through Sikkim, Assam, the Khasia Hills, Chittagong, Burma, Andaman 
Islands, and the Malay Peninsula to China. 
According to Welwitsch, G. africamim 1 is dioecious. The male 
inflorescence is a slender structure, varying in length from 2 to inches ; 
the internodes are about 4 mm. long (PL LX, Fig. r I). The apical node bears 
no flowers (Text-fig. 5). The axis terminates in an elongated, blunt segment 
which at its base is closely invested by the leaf-cupule. 
In G. Buchholzianum the male inflorescence in the main features of its 
form and structure resembles that of G. africanum. In the former the 
average length of the internodes is probably slightly less, and its surface is 
more strongly curved than in the latter (cf. PI. LX, Figs. 1, b , and 1, c ). The 
curvature of the surface of the internode of G. Buchholzianum (Pl.LX,Fig.i,^) 
appears to be a constant character by which the species can at once be 
distinguished from G. africanum. In both, the peduncle bears a pair 2 of 
reduced connate leaves with strongly acute apices ; these are situated usually 
about | in. below the first flower-bearing node. The peduncle above and 
below the insertion of this pair of bracts is approximately circular in section. 
The cupular leaf-sheath subtending each flower-ring is equally developed 
all round its edge except the lowest one or two, in which, sometimes in 
G. africanum , commonly in G. Buchholzianum , the margin is prolonged 
into two equal or somewhat unequal teeth which are decussate with those 
of the sterile peduncular whorl. 
The form of the inflorescence of G. scandens differs in some important 
respects from that of the African species. The upper portion of the 
peduncle is flattened in a plane perpendicular to that of the insertion of the 
pair of peduncular bracts (PI. LX, Fig. 1, a). The floriferous part of the 
axis is shorter ; its nodes are closely crowded — in these characters con- 
trasting very markedly with the greatly elongated axis of the female 
inflorescence ; 3 its apical segment is very short. Certain structural differ- 
ences, to be described below, between G. scandens and the African species 
are even more striking. The characteristic features which distinguish 
G. scandens from the latter are found also in other Indo-Malayan species, and 
it may be that they are common to all the species of this geographical 
region. 
1 Welwitsch (71). 
2 Engler (’08) states that there are usually three leaves in this whorl. This is not the case in 
the material under investigation. 
3 According to Cooke (’07), the fruiting inflorescence may be as much as io in. long. 
