Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/185

 THE DRAC^NAS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 163 shrubby species, such as D. aurantiaca Wall. The smaller species, such as D. Porteri Bak., are often called "Poko San Juan" (St. John's Plant), a name evidently derived from the Portuguese ; but this name is also applied to Dianella ensifoUa Red. CoRDYLiNE TERMiNALis Kunth. Though this plant is inserted in the Flora of British India as if it were a native of the Malay Peninsula, it is not known anywhere except in gardens. It has not even established itself anywhere as an escape, as far as I have seen, nor does it often fruit here. It is commonly planted in graveyards and round villages, and must have been brought from further east many years ago. Some tribes of Dyaks in Borneo associate the red-leaved variety ferrea with slaughter, and no one who has not taken one or more heads is privileged to plant it in his garden. The following is a list of the wild Dracasnas known to me from the Malay Peninsula : — A. Trees or tall shrubs with spreading panicles. (a) With narrow leaves. {b) With broad leaves. D. graminifolia Wall. D. Maingayi Hook. fil. D, granulata Hook. fil. D. aurantiaca Wall. D, brachystachys Hook. fil. D. longifolia Ridl. B. Little branched low shrubs with slender stems and racemose inflorescence (often with one or two short branches at the base). D. Porteri Bak. D. breviflora. D. terniflora Roxb. D. singapurensis. D. congesta Eidl. D, siamica. 0. Tall slender shrubs with drooping branches and wide- spreading pendent panicles. D. nutans Ridl. D. gracilis Wall. D. GRAMINIFOLIA Wall. Cat. 5149. A tall elegant tree about 20 ft. tall, with a smooth white stem 4 in. or more through, much branched above, and densely leafy. The leaves linear-acuminate, with their bases clasping the stem, 6 in. long by J- in. across, deep polished green. Panicle a foot long, rather lax, about 6 in. across ; branches suberect, rather slender. Flowers somewhat distant, an inch long, on a pedicel ^ in. long, split about half-way down, the tube dilated towards the base, whitish green, free part of perianth linear. Stamens as long as the lobes, with fairly stout filaments. Stigma clubbed. Inhabits streams and wet spots in thick jungle ; flowering rarely. Singapore, Bukit Timah (3587^), Bukit Mandai (8800) ; Perak, at the Bindings (Curtis). D. GRANULATA Hook. fil. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 827, I have not met with. It was found in Perak by Dr. King's collectors. D. BRACHYSTACHYS Hook.fil. I. c. 328. A tall but little-branched tree with habit of D. aurantiaca Wall., but with the leaves narrow, lorate, acuminate, coriaceous, strongly keeled, over 8 ft. in length M 2