— 392 — pubescent. Petals elongate-ovate, acute, up to 11 mm long, inside white, outside with a central light red longitudinal band. Style thin, 2 mm long, the minute stigma visible above the cone of 15 stamens. Stamens white with short filaments, the upper anther valve bulging in the centre, folded, resulting in an oblique tubular slit apically and one slit below the bulge. Fruit sub-globose, 3 cm diam., light brown, pericarp thin (1 nun), divided int.. polygonal " fields ", scurvy; cotyledons very lai-e. folded, conduplicate, green; radicle I cm long, 4 mm diam., red. with minute appressed hairs, except the tip : sepals linear, appressed to the fruit base. Distribution : Marshy, periodically inundated land along slow running streamlet in lowland in Kalutara Distr., Matugama area near Bulatsinhala near Honaka. Notes : Thwaites commented on this species, of which at that time (1858) only two specimens were known, Collected by Moon around about 1820-25, one according to Thwaites was sterile, the other had flower buds, which he dissected and found to his surprise that this was a Stemonoporus with the correct number of stamens, etc., but because of the peculiar long numerous stipules, he included it in Stemonoporus with an interrogation mark and mentioned its locality as Maturata, likewise with an interrogation mark. Trimen in 1893 described the pedicels and sepals. He had apparently at hand the sole sheet, now in the Peradeniya Herbarium, lie commented on the species as : " It is greatly to be hoped, that this curious plant may be rediscovered." Ashton failed to look in the convolute, attached to the Peradeniya sheet, which he annotated and stated erroneously, that the sheet was now sterile, although it had still two flowers without corolla and stamens. Not taking heed of Thwaites’s remarks, he opinioned that this was not Stemonoporus but likely Sterculiaceae or even Euphorbiaceae. Alston produced some confused statements. " It is scarcely likely to belong to Stemonoporus and may not even be a Dipterocarp at all" and then some lines further : "should probably form a separate genus"" (in Dipterocarpaceae). Thwaites thought that Moon's specimen perhaps was from Maturate, which is in the moutains near Nuwara Eliya. I am sure that this is a mistake for Matugama in the lowland, Kalutara District, near the place where we found the tree. Lewis noted, that he had seen it in the Maguru Ganga valley near Honaka, on waturana land, but unluckilv bad not collected it (waturana is wet land). Following this tip of Lewis I started investigations on Maguruganga near llonaka and by a lucky coincidence, this was also the home site of Dr. Gunatillekke, who approached a rubber planter in the Bulatsinhala area, who informed him that he was the private owner of a small patch of marshy forest along a streamlet. Dr. Gunatilleke and I explored this mosquito infested, degraded forest, but failed to find Stemonoporus moonii, although several other very rare trees were discovered. Not wanting to give up, I suggested to follow the rivulet and our perseverance was rewarded and many specimens of Stemonoporus moonii, believed to be extinct, were discovered along a muddy depression with Areca coccinea (in itself a rare tree) and along the stream-