Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/184

 162 THE DRAOiENAS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. R. iNFESTus W. On rough ground and in open woods. Only known at present in the north-west of the county, at Kingswood, near Kington. First found, 1895. R. BoRRERi Bell Salt. Exclude the 7?. Sprengelii W. var. Borreri: Flora, 96. Extremely local. Abundant on wooded hills lying near the centre of the county, for about three square miles between the Mynde Park and Orcop, but unknown elsewhere. First found, 1894. Var. c. viRGULTORUM A. Ley. See Flora, 93, under B. urnbrosus. Local, and thinly scattered over the north-east and north of the county ; apparently becoming more frequent in Shropshire, where a fine series of specimens, kindly sent to me by Mr. R. de G. Benson, shows that this bramble makes a near approach to R. infestus W. Kimbolton ; Thornbury ; Ludford Park ; Brampton Bryan. First published, Journ. Bat. 1894, 143. R. Leyanus Rogers. Flora, 520 (as li. Purchasii Blox.). On rough banks and in woods ; widely distributed and locally abundant in Herefordshire. From Howie Hill in the south to Edwin Wood in the east, and Lyonshall in the north-west, this well-marked bramble is known in about twelve distinct stations scattered through all the districts of the county. (To be continued.") THE DRACAENAS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. By H. N. Ridley, M.A., F.L.S. The Dracaenas are by no means an easy group of plants to study, on account of the absence of very distinctive characters in herbarium specimens on which so many species have been based. The leaves are apt to vary very much in different parts of the same plant, in form and size. The flowers are in almost all species very similar, and though the inflorescence varies from a raceme to a spreading panicle, yet the racemose species often have a tendency to throw out lateral branches, and the paniculate ones vary so much in the development of the panicle that it is often difficult to distinguish plants by this character. Tha fruit again gives but little aid, as its form and size differ according to whether one, two, or three seeds are developed. The form of the whole plant is really one of the best distinguishing characteristics, but from the great size of many species this is not to be gathered from herbarium specimens, which too often have no notes giving any clue as to whether a species is a big tree or a low shrub. In the following notes I give on the species I have met with, I design to collect together such observations as I think are supplementary to the descriptions of our species in the Flora of British hidia. Native Names. — The native name for the arboreous Dracaenas commonly in use is '' Chemou," but *' Andong," which is, strictly speaking, Cordyline terminalis Kunth, is often applied to the large