A NOTE ON THE MALE INFLORESCENCE OF A 
SPECIES OF GNETUM FROM SINGAPORE 
By A. ST CLAIR CAPORN, B.A. 
The material for this investigation was available through the kindness of 
Mr I. H. Burkill, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. The 
spikes were collected by Mr J. W. Anderson, the assistant curator, from 
a climber growing in a corner of the Gardens Jungle. The name of the 
species is doubtful ; Mr Burkill suggests that it may be G. funiculare. 
1. External Features 
The male inflorescence is thick and compact, the internodes being short 
and completely hidden by the large cupnles. The lowest two cupules retain 
evidence of their origin in the pair of teeth that each possesses. The total 
number of nodes in the specimens examined varied between 22 and 30 ; 
the average length of an inflorescence was 1*7 ins., the average maximum 
diameter being ’25 in. 
A characteristic feature of every floral ring is its massiveness. The 
annular protuberance which bears the flowers projects very much: it is 
almost semicircular in longitudinal section (Fig. 2). Budded off from it in 
basipetal succession are one row of sterile female flowers and 3 — 4 horizontal 
rows of fertile male flowers, tufts of multiseptate hairs growing in among 
them. The number of ovulate flowers in each ring is approximately 20, the 
number of staminate, 30. It will be seen, therefore, that a single node may 
bear as many as 140 flowers. Owing, no doubt, to the fact that the floral 
ring is able to produce such a large number of flowers, mainly by virtue of its 
large diameter, the further activity of the meristematic zone at the base of 
the ring becomes unnecessary. Hence the cessation of flower production 
and the development of a circular fringe of hairs. This interpretation of 
the early abortion of the meristem derives support from the fact that, in 
the species of Gnetum whose inflorescences have narrow axes with elongate 
internodes, there is ample space left for the extension of the meristem 
in a downward direction. 
