Three species of Typhonium (Araceae) newly recorded from Myanmar in the course of the ongoing inventory work for the floristic analysis of Myanmar are reported with taxonomic comments. The first species, Typhonium cordifolium, has been known from Thailand only. The second species, previously called T. gracile and known from Khasi Hill in North India, was re-described as T. neogracile based on the plants collected from Myanmar. The tuber of the third species, Typhonium praecox, was sold at sightseeing places in the Kyaikhtiyo Wildlife Sanctuary, Mon State, for domestic medicinal use. It was cultivated to flower in Japan and recognized as a new species. It is characteristic that the flowering shoot does not have a foliage leaf so that the inflorescence appears above ground much earlier than the normal leaves.

Bhutanese species of Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) are taxonomically revised and enumerated based on herbarium and field examinations. Lectotypification is made for several species. Aconitum bhutanobulbilliferum, a new scandent species of subgenus Aconitum is here described from the Gasa Distr., central Bhutan. A. bhutanobulbilliferum is distinguished from A. bulbilliferum Hand.-Mazz. by having smaller flowers, linear or narrowly spathulate bracteoles situated below the middle of pedicels, shorter nectary spurs and larger nectary labia. A. bulleyanum Diels and A. gammiei Stapf, other scandent species with glabrous pedicels from E Himalaya, are clearly different from A. bhutanobulbilliferum by the absence of bulbifery. Aconitum bhutanobulbilliferum is also distributed in Tibet and Assam. Two poorly known species, A. chloranthum Hand.-Mazz. and A. palmatum D. Don, are also shown with color illustrations.

A new species, Globba ranongensis (Zingiberaceae), is described from peninsular Thailand and illustrated. Relationship with other closely related taxa is discussed.

Estimated to comprise over 4,500 species of vascular plants, the flora of the Solomon Islands is one of the richest of the South Pacific region. Given the geography and geologic history of the archipelago, the rate of plant species endemism is likely to be high. Despite its diversity and economic potential, however, the flora remains uncatalogued and applied knowledge of its economic value is scant. The Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden (MBK) has been conducting plant inventory research in the Solomon Islands since 2007, based on a memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed between the Ministry of Forestry of the Solomon Islands and MBK. The aims of the MoA are to facilitate the production of a full plant inventory of the Solomon Islands' flora, and to assess the potential of certain species for development as an economic resource. In the present study, traditional custom doctors, villagers and land owners on Malaita Island were interviewed in a survey of the use of medicinal plants in complementary medicine. Fifty plant species were confirmed as being in regular use. A preliminary checklist to the 163 species cited in the interviews is presented, and detailed descriptions, including vernacular names and uses, of 28 particularly noteworthy species are given.

Author names of five Selliguea species are corrected; Selliguea echinospora (Tagawa) Fras.-Jenk., S. engleri (Luerss.) Fras.-Jenk., S. hastata (Thunb.) Fras.-Jenk., S. rhynchophylla (Hook.) Fras.-Jenk., and S. yakushimensis (Makino) Fras.-Jenk.

Three legumes naturalized in Japan are recorded: Astragalus adsurgens Pall., Lespedeza maximowiczii C. K. Schneid. and Campylotropis macrocarpa (Bunge) Rehder. The first and second species represent new introductions probably from China. These two species are found as natives naturally in Japan, but their habitats are restricted and they have not been found in western Honshu (Yamaguchi Prefecture) and Shikoku. The these species reported here are found along roadsides in recently developed areas in Shikoku with several imported species from China. The third species C. macrocarpa collected once in Kochi Prefecture in 2000, is newly found in several localities in Ehime Prefecture including var. hupehensis (Pamp.) Iokawa & H. Ohashi. The distribution of both varieties overlaps only in part of China, suggesting that Campylotropis macrocarpa in Shikoku is imported from China.

The name “Shin’nô-yashi”, which means Imperial Prince palm in Japanese, was proposed for a miniature date, Phoenix roebelenii O’Brien (Arecaceae) by N. Matsuzaki in a commercial magazine “Jissai Engei” [Practical Horticulture] in 1930. However, the original meaning of the name is not properly understood even now probably because the original article has been overlooked by most authors. Matsuzaki (1930) named the palm in memory of the Imperial Prince Takaoka (799-865), remembering Takaoka’s hard and long travel to India to study Buddhism, via China and Laos where the palm is growing wild in the mountains. Takaoka died on the way to the Malay Peninsula.

Angelica dahurica is the original plant of an important crude drug in East Asia, e.g., “Byakushi, Angelica Dahurica Root, Angelicae Dahuricae Radix” in The Japanese Pharmacopoeia 15th edition (2006). The scientific name of the plant has, however, been variously attributed to “Benth. & Hook.”, “(Fisch.) Benth. & Hook. f.”, “(Fisch. ex Hoffm.) Benth. & Hook. f. ex Franch. & Sav.”, etc. The basionym, Callisace dahurica, was validly published by Hoffmann in the legend of figure 18 in Gen. Pl. Umbell. ed. 2., 1(2): 206 (1816) as revised recently (June 2009) in IPNI (http://www.ipni.org/index. html). Angelica dahurica was validly published by Franchet and Savatier in 1873, and they ascribed the name to “Benth. & Hook. f.”, although Bentham and Hooker f. (1865) did not use the epithet “dahurica” in Angelica in their work. The correct author citation of the name and the basionym with their original publications should be Angelica dahurica (Hoffm.) Franch. & Sav., Enum. Pl. Jap. 1(1): 187 (1873) and Callisace dahurica Hoffm., Gen. Pl. Umbell., ed. 2.1(2): 206, tab. tituli fig. 18 (1816).

New combinations, Melanthera biflora (L.) Wild var. ryukyuensis (H. Koyama) K. Ohashi & H. Ohashi and M. robusta (Makino) K. Ohashi & H. Ohashi are proposed on the basis of Wedelia biflora (L.) DC. var. ryukyuensis H. Koyama and W. prostrata Hemsl. var. robusta Makino, respectively. Wedelia prostrata var. robusta Makino is lectotypified.

In the ôkôchi National Forest, Fukui Prefecture, on the Japan Sea side, central Honshu, we found peculiar trees of Cerasus incisa (Thunb. ) Loisel. var. kinkiensis (Koidz.) H. Ohba to have color-changeable flowers from white to rose. Owing to its ornamental value we give a name to them: forma somewake, which means ‘dyeing into different colors’.

A herbarium cabinet with roll screen instead of leaf door is proposed for improved working environment in the herbarium.