Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/186

 164 THE DRAC^NAS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. and 2 in. across; the panicle large and spreading, with berries as large as those of D. Maingayi Bak. Eather rare, in dense woods. Malacca, at Hulu Belangkan ; Pe- nang, on Moniot's Road {Curtis, no. 2302) ; Perak, on Hermitage Hill. D. Maingayi Hook. fil. I. c. 329. A very fine large tree about 40 ft. in height, with strict branches forming a large dense crown. The stem is 2 or 3 ft. through, the wood hard and white. The leaves are deep green and shining, lanceolate or oblong- acuminate, about 1 ft. long and 3 in. across, but often much narrower in pro- portion ; the petiole is 1 in. long, winged to the base. The panicles are borne on the ends of the branches ; they are 2 ft. long, with a few stout spreading branches. The bracts are lanceolate-acuminate ; the flowers rather distant on the branches, about five together in a tuft, with several short ovate-lanceolate bractlets at the base. The fruits are as large as cherries, globose, and polished orange. It inhabits sandy woods, usually near the sea; and I have met with it in Singapore at Changi (4413), Sungei Moral, Joas, and Bukit Panjang (5919) ; in Johore at Batu Pahat ; in Malacca at Bukit Bruang, and on Pulau Besar, where Grifiith also collected it. D. aurantiaca Wall. Cat. 6744. D. Cantleyi Bak. in Journ. Bot. 1881, 326. D. marmorata Bak. in Bot. Mag. t. 7078. A large shrub, sometimes almost a tree, with usually the habit of Cordyline terminalis Kth., erect, little or not branched. Stem about 12 ft. tall or much less, 1 in. or less through. Leaves on the end of the branches or main stem, coriaceous, lanceolate or oblong-cuspidate or ovate-acuminate, tapering to the base, with a winged petiole, from 1 to 3 ft. long, 4 or 5 in. across, polished green or purple, marbled with ring-shaped lighter patches. Panicle erect, large, terminal, stout, about 1| ft. long, with spreading branches thickly covered with flowers. Bracts 1 in. long, ^ in. across, lanceolate- acuminate, acute, the floral bracts much smaller. Flowers usually purple outside, white within, more rarely green or greenish white, cylindrical, slender, 1 in. long, on short pedicels f in. long, arranged in tufts of three or four, with very small ovate bractlets. Stamens as long as the perianth-lobes, white; style a little longer, rather stout ; stigma capitate. Fruit orange, as big as a cherry. Seed translucent, white. It inhabits open places, borders of woods, especially in wet spots, and is common all over Singapore and Southern Johore ; further north it is less plentiful, and almost disappears northwards. In Malacca it occurs at Nyalas and Panchur, and in Penang at Paya Terobong. (Nos. 5879, 5880, 4682, 1644, 1650.) Though an unmistakable plant when alive, herbarium specimens seem to give much trouble on account of the variable form of the leaf. The stem branches when the top is lost, and old stumps often attain a considerable size. The leaves vary much even in the same plant. A form with long narrow pendent leaves is figured in the Botanical Magazine under the name of D. marmorata Bak. In other plants there is more of a distinction between blade and petiole, and sometimes both forms occur on the same plant ; they vary, too, in colouring. In bot open swamps they are of a deep violet-purple,