Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

I
I9I5'] H. N. Ridley: Botany of Gunong Tahan. 185
240. CONAMOMUM SERICEUM, n. Sp.
Rhizome large, supported on stilt-roots. Leafy stems 8
feet tall. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 18 inches long, 7 inches
across, narrowed at the base, shortly cuspidate at the apex,
glabrous except on the edges of the tip, dark green above, paler
beneath ; petiole short, grooved ; ligule \ inch long, oblong,
truncate, silky. Peduncles stout, 6-7 inches long, covered
with 5 large, glabrous, ribbed, truncate sheaths, about 2 inches
long. Spike cylindric, stout, 4 inches long, dense-flowered.
Rachis hairy ; pedicels half an inch long. Bracts urceolar,
subulate, with an acuminate cusp, pale, papery, silky, containing
2 flowers on short pedicels, the second enclosed in another and
smaller bract. Outer bract i inch long. Calyx tubular, thin,
papery, prolonged at one side into a cusp, glabrescent, half an
inch long. Corolla-tube short, hardly as long as the calyx;
lobes elliptic, oblong, white, shorter that the stamen, obtuse.
Lip 3-lobed, ovate ; lobes not deeply cut and subequal in length,
yellow, darker on the mid-lobe, base and side-lobes spotted
with pink. Anther oblong, crest 3-lobed, central lobe oblong,
truncate or rounded, side-lobes oblong, truncate or curved,
slightly acuminate, white tinted and spotted with pink. Fruit
not ripe, elliptic, ribbed when dry, glabrous.
Gunong Tahan, in damp woods in the Gully and in the
woods bordering the streams in the Padang. Common.
This species is allied to C. citrininn, Ridl., of the Taiping
Hills, and Bujong Malacca, differing in the papery, cuspidate,
pubescent bracts, the form of the lip (which is much more
distinctly lobed), silky ligule, etc.
*24i. Geostachys elegans, Ridl. op. cit. p. 331. Common
in the drier part of the woods on the upper slopes above
the streams. Also collected by Robinson. In many plants
the leaves are of a brilliant purple beneath, very attractive.
The corolla is yellow, the lip darker in colour, and there is a
pair of short linear crimson staminodes at the base. There are
two flowers in each bract, which I find also in some, at least,
of the type-form from Mt. Ophir.
The only other localitv for this plant at present known is
Mt. Ophir.
AMARYLLIDE^..
242. CURCULIGO LATIFOLIA, Dryaiid. ; antea, p. 59.
Narrowed-leaved form. Wet woods of the Teku, 4,600 feet
elevation.
Distribution. Burmah, Andamans, whole Peninsula, and
Malay islands ;
common, but seldom at any great altitude.
BURMANNIACE^.
*243. BuRMANNiA LONGIFOLIA, Becc. ; Ridl. op. cit. p. 331 ;
antea, p. 59. Abundant in damp shady spots all over the
Padang, and along the ridges from about 4,000 feet upwards.
The flowers are white with blue corolla and calyx-lobes.
Distribution. From Borneo (Sarawak) all over the Malay
Peninsula at an altitude of 3,000 to 6,000 feet. Absent from
M^ Ophir.