SPICILEGIUM NEILGHERRENSE:; OR A SELECTION OF NEILGHERRY PLANTS, DRAWN AND COLOURED FROM NATURE, WITH BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH; SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE GEOGRAPHY AND AFFINITIES OF NATURAL FAMILIES OF PLANTS, AND OCCASIONAL NOTICES OF THEIR ECONOMICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. BY ROBERT WIGHT, M.D., F.LS., & MEMB. IMP. ACAD, NATUR. CURIOS.: ROYAL RATISBON BOT. SOC.: EDINR. BOT. SOC.: CORR. MEMB, HORT. SOC.; SURGEON MADRAS ESTABLISHMENT. VOL If MADRAS: SOLD BY MESSRS. FRANCK AND CO. CALCUTTA! MESSRS. OSTELL, LEPAGE AND CO.; LONDON: H. BAILLIERE. PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY P. R. HUNT, AMERICAN MISSION PRESS. 1851. COMPOSIT#. By far the largest order of the vegetable kingdom and the most widely distributed of the Dicotyledonous division. Of species, there are already known and described, nearly, if not fully, 10,000, derived from every quarter of the known world, from the Equator to both pular circles and from the level of the ocean almost to the line of perpetual congela- tion. But though thus general they are far from being equally distributed as regards the proportion they bear, in each region, to othr plants. In France they are estimated to amount to about 1 in 8 :inGermany, } in 15 : North America, 1 in 6: Sicily, 1 in 2 (?): Tropical New Holland 1 in 23, &c. In India they probably amount to about 1 in 20 and on the Neilgher- ries to about 1 in 15. ‘These estimates are however only approximations, but are sufficiently near to show the general predominance of the family over all others, which is still more conclusively established bythe better ascertained fact of their species constituting about one tenth of those of the whole flowering vegetation of the earth. = A family of such vast extent and at the same time so very natural has engaged “much of the attentign of Botanists with a view to its subdivision in such a manner as will facilitate the investigation of its species by grouping them in well defined and naturally dis- posed tribes and genera. Great progress has undoubtedly been made in this work, especially in the monagraph of the late most excellent Professor DeCandolle who devoted nearly 10 years of his valuable life to the completion of that most arduous undertaking , carefully availing himself, throughout, of the labours of his predecessors. But much as he has accom- plished it cannot be doubted that much remains to be effected before it can be admitted that even an approximation to perfection has been attained. The family as a whole, may be said to be, one of the most easily recognized of the vegetable kingdom: as regards the Indian ‘ Flora this is certainly the case, there being only one genus( Xanthium) of our Flora referred to it, about which any one,previously acquainted with a few species, could entertain a doubt and it cannot, I think, be admitted as a true congener. The marks by which Composite are distinguished are few in number and gene- rally easily made out—F lowers in heads, surrounded by an involucrum. Florets, seated on a receptacle, furnished with a variously formed pappus calyx, but which is sometimes obsolete or wanting. Corolla superior, monopetalous, lobed, the lobes furnished with marginal veins, 7 . B 9 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. eestivation valvate. Anthers usually cohering by the margins forming a tube round the style. Ovary 1 celled with a single erect ovule. Stigma usually 2 cleft. Numerous other particulars appertain to them, but these are the essential peculiarities of the order. They however, require to be taken together as each, viewed separately, may be found in other families but never all together. For example, many plants have capitate inflorescence and some haye their florets bound by an involucrum asin true Composite and even a pappus calyx, as Dipsacee, but they want the venation of the corolla and its valvate zstiva- tion, the usually cohering anthers and erect ovules. obeliacew have cohering anthers but differ in every thing else. Many families have valvate estivation of the corolla but are deficient in other characteristics. Solitary erect ovules are also met with but uncom- bined with the other marks. It thence follows that this is usually a very distinct and easily recognised family not liable to be mistaken for any other. In Geographical distribution its predilections are in respect to temperature, very decidedly temperate, comparatively few being found within the tropics, though they abound in the warmer latitudes just beyond. The Indian Flora is estimated to include about ‘700 species for all India. The Neilgherries alone have nearly 100, while the plains from Cape Comorin to Ganjam can scarcely furnish an equal number and many of these, being drawn from the vegetation of the lower ranges of hills, belong to the Subalpine rather than Champaign Flora. A family embracing so many species, must almost necessarily furnish many plants both highly ornamental and useful toman. Cur flower gardens abound with the former, including Chrysanthemums, Zinneas, Everlastings, Asters, Sunflowers, Coriopsids and a thousand others, but especially the magnificent Dahlia which takes unquestioned pre- cedence of all others; the finer varieties of which can scarcely be excelled, when well cultivated, for richness of colouring and ornamental effect in the well disposed parterre. The number of species which it contributes to the economical purposes of man is scarcely less considerable. The common garden Lettuce and Endive are among the best known of these, but the Artichoke, Cardoon, Jerusalem Artichoke, Salsafy, &c. &c., are.all much cultivated as esculents. The flowers of some yield pigments : the seed oils of fine quality. A vast number are used in medicine for the cure or alleviation of numerous diseases, and among them a very few only are known to be possessed of acrid or virulent properties, of these Arnica montana, a Swiss plant, known in English gardens under the name of Mountain ‘Tobacco, is the most conspicuous. Many are intensely bitter combined with aromatic properties, hence, possessing tonic and febrifuge virtues. Buton these it would be out of place to dwell in this work. Various arrangements have been proposed to facilitate the investigation of species of this most natural family of plants, hitherto with but indifferent success. I shall here confine myself to a brief explanation of the last, that of the lamented DeCandolle, as being the one according to which the few species introduced into this work are distributed. He divides the whole family into three primary groups or classes. Ist. TuBULIFLOR» having the bisexual or hermaphrodite flowers tubular. Those of the ray, when present, are usually female and to that extent imperfect and abnormal. NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 2 2nd. LasraTirLor# having the hermaphrodite flowers, divided into two lips—Of this division the Neilgherry Flora furnishes no representative. 3rd. LicuLiriorz all the flowers hermaphrodite, with the petals split along one side, resembling the ray florets of the first class or suborder. ‘These primary divisions again are divided into 8 tribes, ee 1. Vernoniacce style cylindrical, its arms long and subulate, occasionally short and blunt, covered all oVer with bristles. 2. Hupatoriacca’ style cylindrical, its arms ope and clavate with a papillose sur- face on the outside near the end. 3. Asteroidee style cylindrical, its arms linear flaton the outside equally and finely downy on the inside. 4, Senecionideee style cylindrical its arms linear fringed at the point, generally truncate, but sometimes extended beyond the fringe into a cone or appendage of some sort. 5. Cinaree style thickened upwards and usually fringed at the tumour. 6. Mutisiacee style cylindrical, somewhat tumid near the apex, its arms usually blunt or truncated, very convex on the outside, and covered, at the upper part, with fine uniform hairiness, or absolutely bald. 7. Nasuviacee style never tumid branches long linear truncate fringed only at the point. 8. Cichoracce style cylindrical branches linear truncate equally pubescent. These tribes are again subdivided into subtribes and divisions. This arrangement is ingenious and often succeeds in bringing together very natural groups, but seems to me to labour under the disadvantage of being constructed on too narrow a foundation, a few, and these often almost inappreciable, variations of the style and stigma seem scarcely sufficient for the support of such a gigantic superstructure as is raised upon them, the more so, as but little practice is required to furnish exceptions, not easily got over, in every tribe. It is however the last method which has been proposed and what is of perhaps greater weight we have now a complete monograph of the order constructed on it, whence, for the present at least,it is generally adopted by Botanists. And they are under very great obligations to the late accomplished professor DeCandolle for his untiring appli- cation in reducing to regular form that which, previous to his labours, was a perfect chaos. It must not however be overlooked that tke original plan did not originate with him, but with Cassini and Lessing, especially the latter, whose divisions he has closely followed in the arrangement cf his materials. In working out these it seems to be the general opinion of. - Botanists that he has needlessly multiplied genera, an error not at all times easily avoided, but not on that account the less to be regretted, as the example of so great a proficient in the science can scarcely fail to be extensively followed by the less competent observers. When writing an account of this family for publication in my Illustrations of Indian Botany I made a list of all the genera found in India and with them prepared a “ synopsis of the genera of Indian Composite” In this synopsis the characters are some- * 4 ; NEILGHERRY PLANTS. what abbreviated and the arrangement of their parts considerably modified. DeCandolle’s arrangement commences with the Capitulum followed by the Involucrum—Receptacle—- Corolla—Stamens—Acheenium (seed)—Pappus—and the natural character of the plant. The peculiarities of all these parts are more or less fully described in each character while in fact the really essential points, after the sectional ones, are usually derived from the capitulum, acheenium, and pappus. In this way many peculiarities not essential to the recognition of the genus, and liable to perplex the student, are admitted into the character, by which it is often greatly lengthened without obtaining any commensurate advantage. . To ayoid the perplexity which such a plan occasionally involves I have commenced mine with the capitulum, followed by the achenium and pappus as supplying the really essential points of the character. ‘These again are followed by the natural character or habit of the plant including the involucrum, receptacle and flowers. In this way no point of even minor importance is overlooked while marked prominence is given to those which are really essential. The generic characters adopted in this work are those of the synopsis with such additions as may from time to time seem desirable. TRIBE I.—Vernonracex. This tribe is for the most part recognised, at first sight, by its homely, I had almost said, weed-like aspect, the capitula being generally without ray or ornament of any kind, andthe flowers without brilliancy of colou¥ing. It now includes between 60 and 70 genera six or eight of which have Indian representatives. ‘The flowers are tubular, equally 5 cleft, with the longish deeply cleft style projecting from the throat, extending its long cylin- drical arms on either side. Of the Indian species, the colour is usually a, more or less deep, lilac hue. The pappus is generally rigid and seen under a magnifier rough. The recep- tacle is either alveolate or beset with bristles, the whole inclosed by a many scaled imbricated inyolucrum. Sobiche Vases capitula discoid homogamous. Diy. Euvernoniex —anthers ecaudate involucrum, not compressed,* polyphyllus. VERNONIA. Capitulum usually many flowered. Achenia with a cartilagenous callus at the base and a large epigy- nous disk. Pappus usually a double series, the interior one bristly much longer than the paleaceous outer one. Iferbs, shrubs, or trees: leaves alternate often glandulose : involucrum imbricated, interior squame longest : re- ceptacle naked or rarely fimbrillose : flowers few or many: corollaregular, 5 cleft, usually purple or rose colour- ed, filaments smooth. This genus is one of great extent 290 species being defined in the Sth volume of DeCandollis prodro- mus and, since the publication of that volume 10 years ago,so many species have been added that I imagine the number of published species now exceeds 350, upwards of 30 of which are natives of India. In America they are much more numerous but do not seemin either country to merit much considertion as I do not find any “notice taken of any of the species in works treating of the useful properties of plants. One Indian species 7 anthelmintica is held in repute in this country as a remedy for worms, as the name implies, but I have never known it used though sufficiently common and easily procured. As ornamental plants they merit but little regard the one figured in this work being about the best looking of those found in this part of India and it must be confessed that, as seen growing, it has a very weed-like appearance little likely to obtain favour in the eyes of the lover of fine flowers. * Thi ie + + dott. rs 4 + +h, Aaivias ;} hieh th Sear? hat 4, 103 Compu. sifce’ if é VERHOVWUACELE! } 2 g olf Lith . on Dumpty, Sl g eanonia peclini~ormts/ D C/ - Pung ah: Jaled, CAMMONRAHUEEA Ce SY ii: a7 ae ie pe - — y aL os ay Deanem reiculs tum {| D. NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 5 This genus is very nearly allied to the following, which is distinguished by the pappus of this being in a double series in that a single one with 10 ribbed achenium. Whether generic value ought to attach to points of such apparently small importance may be questionable, but still as they provide the means of some- what reducing an overgrown genus they“are not likely to be objected to in this instance whatever may be the case, in others where the necessity of employing such is less urgent. VERNONIA PECTENIFORMIS (D. C.) shrubby, therefore infer one of them must bereduced. Under branches a younger ones angled, pu- these circumstances I ought, oe sa to have adopt- bescen short petioled, ovate lanceolate, acu- ed the Neilgherry name, V. pectenata, but was induc- minated, pe aia taly. an and deeply serrated, membrana- ed wrongly, I now fear, to adopt ax other, partly on ceous ; glabrous s above pilose Dhara cymes: termi- account of eager it being the older of the two by n. e, naked : capitula lon many 2 years, but itn cipally _— _ having compare flowered, ov ae: scales of the Hing Doce ry glab- it with an hentic specimen of pecteniformis I rous, ¢ ciliated, ren gag obtuse or subacute,muc- found them, T ‘think. iden tical aa feeling therefore ronate, tipped with bro pretty sure that the specimen figured is yt plant whose name it bears, I eee further con- Neilgherries not unfrequent inclumps of Jungle. te at the ri geriek adopt ted i It was = ore than ear after, when arranging t Decandolle defines what he core to be two prey soaehelele for this oct i that I was led to i Ph nearly allied species under the s V. pectenata the matter and now think that Tt have erred in pre- and pecteniformis the one from the e Neigherse is serving ree shag reas which . menos on the other from the Pulney oe. pi oes other. e plan ciently common about the from both stations and after wal conan cs con- outskirts of * scholahs” eapecially white the soil is fess Iam unable to discover apes differences : and somewhat humid. DECANEURUM. Capitulum many flowered. Achenia usually glabrous marked with ten prominent ribs. Pappus one series, bristles thick, rigid, densely barbellate. Herbaceous or suffrutieose plants, leaves alternate : in- volucrum imbricated many series often surrounded with foliacious bracts : capitula usually solitary terminal : receptacle flat alveolate : flowers regular 5 cleft, purplish. This as compared with the last is a small genus including only 14 or 15 species, all of tropical origin and for the most part Indian. Four however of those deseribed by DeCandolle are from Africa, two Continen- tal, one from Madagascar and one from the Island of Bourbon. The Moluceas furnish one and Ceylon two. Judging from the wide geographical range which this small genus occupies, it seems probable that further researches in Africa will bring many more to light. The Indian peninsula produces two in addition to those known to DeCandolle from this region, one new, which I have figured in my Icones under the name of D. Courtallense, and another, which may also be new, but which I consider D. Silhetense D. C., and have pub- lished, in the same work, under that name. The Neilgherries furnished two or probably three species. The one selected to represent the genus though not a showy plant is not altogether unornamental, and probably under cultivation might be improved were it not that it is almost aquatic in its habits, being always found in wet or even marshy ground. Of the properties of the genus nothing is yet known. It was first established in 1833 by DeCandolle and published in my “Contributions to Indian Botany :” recently the priority of the name has been disputed in favour of another, which claims to be of older date, which it would appear had been overlooked by the professor when naming this genus, a circumstance the more remarkable as it also belongs to a composite plant. ) ap ha da meget engi (D. C.) stem suffruti- over the hills, i in sect Eo nearly naam the egg: se cose, erect, ram » every where rough with bristly in greatest perfecti : leaves seta: a ovate, mucronate, and mucro- hon 2 to 4 Meet high flowers tthe, nately sub dentate ; see oneal Lowers whitish to- . mentose beneath ; nerves and veins scabrous reticula- The specific name is fesse of the under surface ted : peduncles few, oxilinry a terminal capitula of the leaves which is very pale or w — eee is all closely embraced by numerous foliacious ts; inte- over with darker coloured veins, very conspicuous in rior scales of the involucrum scariose, glabrous, longer the specimen, the state in which it so seen Shen than the bracteas.—D. C. Prod. 5 p. 866. nam The generic so ansagie are well developed in this species which the a favourabe one for Neilgherries, frequent on the banks of streams all studying them. 6 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. MONOSIS. Capitulum one flowered. Achcenea glabrous terete. Pappus 2, 3 series, bristles rigid scabrous. Trees or shrubs :leaves alternate : panicles naked, the ends of the branchlets bearing subumbellate sessile capi- tula : scales of the involucrum imbricated, obtuse, shorter than the solitary flower : corolla rose coloured. This —_ was sagrese ttc in rine for the reception of the plant here represented and named with reference to the solitary m. Two additional species from Mexico were subsequently added, and a third is doubtfully chica to rhe genus by DeCandolle. Mexico the other from Brazil, found by Mr. Gardner. The latter mere nearly associates with the Indian species than the Mexican ones, being referable to the same section of the genus. Two more have since been added, one from The Neilgherry plant differs from the American ones in its arborous, habit, often attaining 40 or 50 feet in height with a stem upwards of 2 feet in circumference. Coonoor and Kotergherry, and when in flower, as well as when the seed is approaching maturity, a very con- spicuous object owing to the large panicles which terminate each branch. The leaves are large, obovate, somewhat pointed, strongly transversely ribbid and of a course rigid texture not unlike those of the teak. It is abundant on the eastern slopes below The remarkable peculiarity of this genus, that of having only a single floret in the involucrum, is so far as T am aware only met with in two or three other genera in the order ( Shawia) being one : that also is referable to the same tribe along with another having only two. Many genera have few flowered capitula, but there are very few examples where syngenesious plants lose their aggregate character by having single flowered capitula with many scaled involucra. Monosis WIGHTIANA (D.C.) Piaget ——— bays velutino-tomentose: leaves petiole ovate acute, cuniate arid obtuse or sihenrdaee at the base, , penninerved, saga or somewhat velvetty e; ve elutino hirsute beneath: entire on the bona above cle Perk jaan se ramuli : scale obtuse, tomentose on the back.—D, C. Nejigherries below epcuig ee On the sides of the deep on leading down to the bottom of the Catherine falls rs erry Chas are some noble trees of this ities It owes its specific name to the circumstance of having first become known through the medium of specimens preserved and sent home with my collec- tions in 1828. A large tree, abundant on the Eastern slopes of the TRIBE III ASTEROIDE#. This is a large tribe including, according to DeCandolle upwards of 170 genera, thirty-one of which have representatives in the Indian Flora. America however is the head quarters of the tribe. There the genus aster is found in all its glory and contributes largely to ornament the flower borders of European gardens. The tribe is distinguished by having the Capitula, usually, heterogamous, namely, female florets in the ray and bisexual ones in the disk ; sometimes they are homogamous, that is, having all the florets uniformly bisexsual, or monoicous and occasionally they are dioicous, all males on one plant and all females on another. The Styles of the hermaphrodite flowers are cylindrical above and bifid with _ longish linear somewhat flattened, often subacuminate, rarely obtuse branches ; externally minutely perberulous. The Stigmatic lines of glands are slightly prominent, extending to the origin of the external pubescence. The Corolla pellucid, staminigerous, tubular, regu- larly dentate. The pollen globose echinulate. From these characters it would appear . that the tribe, if really a natural one, presents considerable diversity of form and structure of the flowers, but all bound together by the uniformity of character presented by the style and stigmas. In the subdivision considerable importance is attached to the colour of the flowers, namely, whether homochromous, the disk and ray of the same colour or heteroch- pa “ , ~ } VCMMAOVULACEHE Compuositces 105 eG ) H \\\ \\ AN ve en y \ ES \ SSS AS Calis : i D7 , / LZ ie NN RO. 4 eG LEAOCLER’ . omfrowtka@ M06 \ yj i Ae ij f } Git pert if ’ bi 9) t i. Te OU AEA 4 ‘/ rh fi : L if Vv | W ws x — (Seg3 tN phar "= = NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 7 romous of different colours. The anthers also afford sectional characters, according as they are prolonged downwards forming a kind of tail, caudate or ecaudate; so also the receptacle, whether naked or chaffy (paliaceous) and the leaves, whether opposite or alter- nate, all of which as well as others not noticed are wanted in discriminating the genera of this large and very difficult tribe. Sub-tribe. Asterine, capitula homo or heterogamous usually radiate. Anthers ecaudate. Leaves almost always alternate. ERIGERON. Capitulum one flowered radiate, Ligule linear female, several series : disk flowers tubular, either ail bisexual or with the exterior ones female. Achwnia compressed beakless. Pappus one series.—Herbaceous or suffruticose plants: leaves alternate: capitula hemispherical: involucrum two or three series: receptacle naked foveolately punctuate : flowers of the ray white, blue or purple ; of the disk yellow. Of this large genus including nearly 100 species a few only, about 10, are natives of India and near- ly equally divided between the plains and mountains; but upon the whole it is an extratropical genus, the plurality of its species being natives of North and South America beyond the tropic and those found within these limits being, for the most part, alpine ; a few are found in Europe. The one here represented is very common on the Hills and to be met with at almost all seasons, but especially in the earlier months of the year, after the rains, in almost every moist pasture. DeCandolle has described another species as occurring on the hills under the name of E. Leschenaultii. The differences in the character of the two plants are so slight that I cannot divest myself of the belief that the two form but one species and that the differences indicated are referable rather to individual specimens, than distinct species. The specimen of E. Wightii sent to DeCandolle was an indifferent one, those of E. Leschenaulti might have been bitter, but a comparison of this plant with the original specimen of E. Wightit, leaves scarcely a doubt on my mind of these being scarcely varieties of the same species; and as this is the only one found on the Hills at all corresponding with DeCandoll’s character of E. Leschenaultii, presume that one of these names may be suppressed. The original specimen of Z. Wightii is somewhat more hispid and the peduncles shorter, but then it is clearly less luxuriant and had grown in a drier less fertile soil. Iam thus particular in directing attention to the circumstance of two nearly allied species being supposed natives of the hills in the hope that others, having better opportuni- ties, may be induced to examine the subject with the care necessary towards arriving at a correct conclusion. The flowers of E. Leschenaultit are said to be white of E. Wightii purple, an obvious mark which may materially assist the enquirer. Erictron WicHTII (D.C.) stem erect shortly On the sy sins not ig a in moist pas- ramous: leaves oblong, the price ones igure tures, flowering during the rainy season. Ligule pale - the base, subserrated, somewhat obtuse; superio ee na a ty branches hispid, ‘plant gevah es entire, nate all puberulous a eit ide es: capi- tas pedicelled phe racemose: scales e involu- crum rough on the back, linear schalaiag sausling the _ If there are Sure 2 species I now think, so far - 4 igule ney slender, ee than the disk: can make out from description, that this of the ohsenil glabrous.—D. C.1. ¢. 5, 286. grees better with E. Les ulti than | Wight chena though it has the purple flowers of the latter MYRIACTIS. Capitulum heterogamous. Flowers of the ray two or many series female ; ligule very narrow: of the disk hermaphrodite. Achenia compressed beakless often glanduliferous at the apex. Pappus none— Ereet, dichotomously ramous herbs, with! alternate leaves: peduncles long 1-cephalous paniculate : capituala globose : involucrum 1-2 series: receptacle naked flowers white or yellow. This small genus of six species is exclusively of Asiatic origin, three species being found in India, two in Java, and one in Persia. Iam only acquainted with the present one, which is sufficiently common on the 8 | NEILGHERRY PLANTS. hills, growing in dry pastures. Some specimens I have seen, growing in arid rocky ground, were so reduced in size that at first sight they appeared to be Daisies and were of course eagerly appropriated and greatly prized until closer inspection showed the mistake. The difference between them and the specimen figured was much greater than between the two plants referred to in the preceding article and, probably, had they been sent as distinct species to even so acute and skilful an observer as the late professor DeCandolle, might have deceived him. The figure gives a good idea of the form of the plant but an indifferent one of the flowers which are white. Myrtactis Wicutu (D.C.) sparingly pilose: inferi- resemble the Daisy. “ Radicle vate ovate attenuated or leaves ovate with a long eee attenuation at the into the petiole, the inferior cauline ones cuniate at the base, coarsely inciso-serrate; the superior ones oblong _ base, sparingly eral the upper ones subsessile acu- entire sessile; the apices of the teeth and of the hg minated at both ends : capitula terminal solitary, 4-6 themselves calloso-mucronate —. ..¢. p. 5. 308. lines in diameter : involucrum somewhat t hairy reflex- ed after blooming : ligule white chow 2 series becom- Neilgherries not unfrequent in pastures, minute ing "evalite in drying.” —D. C. forms of it growing in arid stony ground sometimes Sub-tribe Baccharideze Capitulum heterogamous or dioicous never radiate all the florets tubular ; usually several series of female ones in the circumference. Anthers ecaudate : receptacle epaliaceous. Leaves alternate. The plants composing this sub-tribe are most unlike those of the preceding and might, at first sight, well give rise to doubts regarding the propriety of the arrangement “which places them in their present situation. A closer examination, however, shows that the discrepancy is more apparent than real. Here asin the -Asterine we have two distinct sets of flowers the females in the circumference and the male or hermaphrodite ones in the centre, so that, in so far, the difference is mainly in the form of the female flowers, tubular here ligulate there ; but the style and stigmas correspond. The same tubular forms of ray flowers are found in the next sub-tribe, but in the subsequent ones Inulece and Ecliptece the radiate forms return, thus forming a circle combining what, upon the whole, appears a very natural group. 3 DICHROCEPHALA. Capitulum heterogamous. Flowers all tubular: marginal ones female many series; 3-4 toothed ; central ones, hermaphrodite or male, few ; 4-5 toothed. Achenia compressed beakless, of the females bald of the males and hermaphrodites crowned with one or two bristles—Annuals with alternate leaves and few small globose capitula racemosely or paniculately arranged, shorter than the naked pedicels : involucrum, when present, expanding : receptacle naked conical : flowers purplish. This isa small genus seven species only having as yet been discovered. Two ofthese are natives of the Nesighertivs and five of India. Boththe Neilgherry ones occupy a wide geographical range, one being found in Java, China and other parts of India, the other, the one figured, in Java and on the hills. They are easily distinguished by the size of the capitula, those of D. chrysanthemifolia being fully double the size, of those of the other, while the leaves of D, latifolia are broader and larger than those of this. They are found about houses and neglected places in short pasture, but are little known, having meee in their appearance to attract notice, they may however, be viewed as Botanical curiosities. DICHROCEPHALA CHRYS kiwis LIA (D. C.) in neglected places, apparently in flower most part of erect ramous, the whole plant gna i close set the year. t hairyness: inferior leaves lyrately pinna atified ; be superior ones oblong: cordately enamel The little — Points on the outer surface of serrated; the upper ones on : penduncles the corolla deserv ce here as does the calicine rim Ba longer than the capitula—D. C. 1. ¢. 5. 372. of the achenia, as howe that the one pappus of ne : other species of the order, of which this is a modifica- Frequent on the Neilgherries about road sides and tion, is in truth a realcalyx though a very pene one. /04 MMEOAACEE @ } LA ” tghtit/ D actlta VW: Myi é /08 Conf " LC LOAMELE 2” SU" a Mite heak: BS eo aie en ees cheat Ses ny Sk OD ofeOHIE L oA, eae Dunyhns, Lith/ NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 9 Sub-thibe Tarchonanthew capitula either dioicous (male and female on different plants) or heteroga- mous ; never radiate. Female flowers of the circumference many series very slender ; of the disk hermaphro- dite or male, fewer and larger. Anthers caudate. Leaves alternate. BLUMEA. Captitulum heterogamous. Flowers of the circumference many series truncated, 2-3 toothed, the throat scarcely dilated. Anthers very slenderly caudate at the base. Achenia terete. Pappus 1 series bristles capillary scarcely rough.—Herbaceous plants with panicled or loosely corymbose inflorescense : invo- lucrum imbricated many series, scales linear acuminated: receptacle flat, naked, or sometimes hairy : flowers yellow or purplish. is is an extensive genus first established by DeCandolle in the Archives Botanique for 1833, regarding which the author remarks. “It includes about 80 species nearly all undescribed. They are natives of India and a few of Africa ; I have not yet found any from America. Being obliged to give a new name toa genus soeminently Indian, I have dedicated it to M. Blume, author of the Flora of Java, who himself found many of the species and has rendered great service to Indian Botany. He well merits a more brilliant genus but I hope the great number of species will compensate for the modesty of their aspect.” The genus thus introduced to the notice of Botanists has since then been augmented to nearly 100 species. As remarked by the author, their aspect is certainly modest, but they form an interesting group distin- guished from some other nearly allied genera by their terete not compressed seed, the latter being the dis- tinctive mark of Conyza, with which most of the previously described species had been confounded. The one here shown is not characteristic of the habit of the genus but is well suited to give a good idea of its Botanical characters. It is besides a plant so abundant and so strongly marked in its aspect that it is not liable to be mistaken by any one wishing to study the characters of the genus. I have met with it in other places besides the Hills BLUMEA ALATA (D. C.) stem herbaceous erect ra- —‘ stems herbaceous erect ramous, like the leaves ( ous and, like the leaves, clothed with short redish clothed with short redish pubescence leaves oblong pubescence: leaves elliptic oblong, dentate, decurrent, ie denti iealiad: ce salgry bag, ings along forming wings along the stem: peduncles axillaryone the stem, peduncles axillary | pen pas headed race- or few headed, racemosely panicled: capitula sub- mosely panicled Secured ; capitu Pale uous: exteri- erect : exterior scales of the involucrum lanceolate, or scales of t . involucrum necliies folingaass, pu- foliaceous, squarrose, — cent ; interior linear sca- bescent, the interior ones long shini ariose recurv- riose as long as the bey rs.—Flowers purple males 10 a at the points, at length patent.” ‘This epe cies seems Cc. Te ery near B. vernoniodes, are they not vente of th “Seligheries not vifequent Of this species there same species . differin ng inthe degree of clot oe, the are 2 varieties referred to by D.C B cernua and y Na- e “tota dense velutino hirsuta” the other (VP. alata) palensis. The plant represented belongs to the for- “ spike brevi subrufa pubescenti-velutenis TRIBE IV.—Senecton1pe#. ‘This is the largest tribe of the order including, according to DeCandolle’s arrange- ment, no fewer than 388 genera to which many have since been added. Of these 388 only 36 have representatives in the Indian Flora, showing how small a proportion Composite bear in India to the rest of the vegetable kingdom. ‘The proportion Composite bear to the vas- cular plants of the world is about | t810: in India they do not quite amount to 1 in 20. In this tribe, the proportion its Indian genera bears to the whole, is about 1 to 10; but I suspect the proportion of species falls short of that ratio. Among its species are to be found some of the most splendid flowers to be met with in the vegetable kingdom, such as the Dahlia, Sunflower, &c. and on the other hand numerous others are as unassuming as these are conspicuous. Among its species too are many of the most useful plants, in an economi- cal point of view, belonging to this family. : D 10 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. The essential distinctions of the tribe lies in its cylindrical deeply cleft style, the arms linear fringed at the point, generally truncate but sometimes extended beyond the fringe into a cone or appendage of some sort. Corolla of the disk pellucid, pollen globose echenulate, These marks unquestionably aid in enabling a beginner to ascertain whether a plant under examination belongs to this tribe, but are too loose and deficient in precision to be of much use until practice has familiarized him with the forms and characteristic features, if I may so call them, of the plants belonging to it, when they are but little regarded. On this point Dr. Lindley justly remarks, “there can be no doubt thatthe genera are needlessly multiplied; a very little practice tells us that the genera collected under the signs above given do not in all cases exhibit these signs, as is evident from the figures executed under the eye of DeCandolle himself; and we know that, in fact, genera find there place by considerations apart from those ostensibly put forward by DeCandolle.” A reference to the magnified figures of the few genera represented in this work will tend to establish the justice of these remarks. Sub-tribe Melampodinee. Flowers unisexuul, no hermaphrodities, Male and Female in different pisces (divicous) or in different capitula of the same plant (hetorocephalous) or in the same capitulum monoi- cous: anthers ecaudate : receptacle usually paleaceous : pappus never setose. As regards Indian Botany this subtribe I fe tives, three or four being all that is known and one of these, Xanthium, scarcely meriting a ‘dee in the order, being, as compared with the rest, most anomalous in structure. Of the genus here represented only 2, or at most 3 species are known, one continental and one, or perhaps two, from Ceylon, the native country of the one first described and on which the genus is ounded. . * MOONTA. Capitulum monoicous. Flowers of the ray 1 series female ligulate, limb 3 cleft; of the disk male. Branches of the style of the female linear revolute ; of the male included simple or slightly cleft at the apex, sterile. Achenia obovate somewhat compressed entire or shortly bicornute at the apex. Shrubs: leaves opposite : peduncles terminal 1 cephalous : involucrum 2 series, the exterior spreading recurved; interior erect : receptacle paliaceous palie membranous J nerved : flowers yellow. * This genus was first defined by Dr. Arnott and named in honor of the late Mr. Moon the zealous superintendent of the Ceylon Botanic garden. As above stated, only two, or at most 3 species, are yet known, one or, probably, two from Ceylon and the present which abounds on the Neilgherries, especially about the Avalanche where it is found round the outskirts of every wood, flowering abundantly in March and April, but I believe is in flower at all seasons. There, it is a diffuse very ramous shrub seeking support from its neigh- bours, though not a climbing plant, and in favourable situations may be met with upwards of six feet high. Moonta ARNorTiana (R. W.) s shrubby, erect, ra- there. It has nothing common or weed-like i in its mous: ii opposite, ae soca the ter- aspect and it seems highly probable that, grown in or lobe larger, deeply 3 cleft: pinn seeislen but rich soil, the flowers would i posers e insize and inate, coarse eb rent ae glahioiik flowers number at "the expense of the m andleaves. It of the art pro : achenia entire at the apex—R. would also possess the charm of pats for though W. Icon abundant about the Avalanche it is quite unknown about Ootacamund, Neilgherries and Pulney ppt in clumps of j jrmgle—on t the former, common near the Avalanche JM. heterophylla (Arnott) ‘enffruticose f ? leaves op- ngalow and in almost every pcscen, of jungle from posite, petio. od, entire or cng girtnd divided, na thence to diene Sisparah, mucronate serratures: flowers of th acheenia marginate | bibecniite « apex. Ceylon. crt This plant seems not unworthy of a place in the per D. C. prod, i—289. flower garden,many less deserving being already found eee os gt eee eee : ; Vent COPUMELE’ Pot 7 Poon LODAICE ALO + EZ om fA ; NZ Sa ¢ rex) Da WYyZ Siungiiaty bl: LDeucrnpliy Lith. Moonen enotliand. (4 WU) //7 Dump Lille Viungiad: bel dilavides (BP 6) fi C4 a cy 5 a eee NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 11 Sub-tribe Gnaphaliew. Capitula homogamous or heterogamous discord. very rarely radiate, sometimes 1 flowered. Anthers caudate. Ach@ina crowned with a pilose or setaceous pappus, very rarely bald. Leaves usually alternate. To this section the group of Cape plants well known to amateurs in England under the name of “ everlastings,” belong. They owe their name to the dry chaffy scales of the involucrum, which, in many, are ‘ highly coloured and polished presenting almost metallic lustre. And as these remain, retaining the brilliant appearance of the growing plant, long ofter they have been gathered, the name seems very appropriate. None of dian ones merit, the appellation having neither the brilliance nor durability of their cape congeners. This subtribe is one of great extent including according to DeCandolle’s list 80 genera, and it may safely be doubted whether any other division of the order has prog so ere ag a Botanists as this one. The species are numerous and so closely resembling each other tl it task of great difficulty and nicety, only to be acquired by much patient investigation of every part of the plant. This has led to the extensive multiplication of genera indicated by the above figures very many of these being confined to one or two species. Such being the case it seems almost unavoidable that some if not many of them should rest on characters so indistinct that none but a very practised eye can detect them. For myself 1 candidly confess that, even with the aid of named specimens and generally good materials, I have felt myself incompe- tent to detect the limits which separate some of the genera commonly met with on the hills such as Helichry« sum, Gnaphalium, Antennaria and Anaphalis : nor can I help thinking, as the result of my examinations, that were the specimens put into the hands of any other Botanist or even D. CU. himself, were he happily still among us, that they would all be again referred to the same genera in which D.C. has left them. The plant here figured is referred to the genus Helichrysum but I cannot discover in what respect; it differs generally from some others named, by the same authority Anaphalis and they again pass into others respectively named Gna- phalium and Antennaria. These circumstances are mentioned more for the purpose of showing the difficulties attending the determination of the genera of this tribe than questioning the goodness of the genera themselves which, to a more practised investigator, may be clear enough, though I doubt my own assumption. HELICHRYSUM. Capitulum sometimes homogamous the flowers all hermaphrodite, 5 toothed ; sometimes heteroga- mous the marginal flowers, often very few, 1 series, female. - Achcenia beakless sessile with a termenal areola. Pappus 1 series bristles roughish not plumose.—Herbs or shrubs with alternate leaves: involucrum imbricated ; scales scariose, interior ones connivent or radiant : 1eceptacle flat, epaleaceous, naked, areolate or fimbrilifer- ous : involucrum white purple or yellow : corolla yellow or purple. Of this genus DeCandolle enumerates upwards of 200 species, two only of which are found in India ; viz. the accompanying and one from Ceylon. Africa is certainly its head quarters; but Europe, Asia and Australia all contribute species, none however has yet been found in America. Many of the Cape ones are remarkable for the brilliancy and rich colouring of their involucral scales. HELICHRYSUM pdb lan rot (D. C.) stem suffru- yellow wiardte render this a hea plant. The ticose erect ramous woolly towards the apex leaves Tes ves are from 3 to 4 inches long, 8-10 lines broad : sessile ovate lanceolate — entire, 7— rece eptacle alveolate shortly fim fimbri flat te: flower of the glabrous above w tomentose beneath : io iabe outer series female or sterile, the rest hermap odite : compound palbcepalou at shi: ‘aioe es of the stems - e and stamens included: pappus 1 series pilose and branches tula ovate, densely crowded: scabrous : pec glabrous. &S scales of the save aaah oval sige about equal, a little longer than the disk. —D. C. 1. e. 6.201. A handsome perennial at too great a size to e convenient as a garden nates but for the com- A rather common plant.on the Neilgherries form- ant that objection does not apply, especi cially when ing dense clumps or bushes from 4 to 6 feet high. bounded b by elifty rocks, shrubbery or clumps of trees, The white stems aad undersurfaces of the ak con- in such a situations it is conspicuous and ornamental. trasting with green upper ones and large clusters of 12 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. CARPESIUM. Capitulum heterogamous discoid, marginal florets female several series ; disk hermaphrodite. Anthers caudate. Branches of the style terete obtuse subglabrous. Achenia oblong compressed. rostrate ; rostrum beset with viscid glands. Pappus none.—Herbaceous erect plants : leaves alternate : capitula solitary on the ends of the branches : involucrum many series imbricate, exterior ones sometimes foliaceous : flowers yellow. This is a small genus of 8 species, 7 of which are Indian the other a native of Europe ; one is said to be a native of Travancore. Considerable difference of opinion exists among Botanists as to its proper place in the order. It is certainly very unlike the other Gnaphalioid genera met with on the Hills, but as they are few in number that is no criterion. It a8sociates with the tribe in its caudate anthers and heterogamous capitula. This is a curious looking plant but has no beauty to recommend it to notice. The beaks of the seed are covered with vascid glands which causes them to adhere to whatever approaches them, hence, as the plant is common in the woods, it is no uncommon occurrence for one who has been walking in such places to find his clothes covered with them on returning from his rambles. CarPesitum NEPALENSE (Lessing) hirsuto-villous: more villous beneath : capitula 4 lines broad.—D. C. leaves elliptico-lanceolate, acuminate, dentate, attenu- . 6—281, ated into the petiol ; capitula subcernuous, campanu- A common plant in ali the woods about Ootacamund, late: interior scales of the involucrum subacute.— but so far as | am aw e neither useful nor ornamen- Petiols and branches villoso-hirsute, leaves pale and tal, To the Botanist only it is interesting. ™N Sub-tribe Senecione. Capitula homogamous or ‘heterogamous ; discoid or radiate. Anthers ecaudate, Achenia crowned with a setaceous or pilose pappus the marginal ones sometimes bald, Leaves alternate. . tat ins e last sub-tribe, is an extensive group, than it. In that there are 80 genera, in this 25. The difference in the number of species is not so great in proportion. This sub-tribe is only remarkable as including the genus Senecio the largest, as regards the number of its species, in the vegetable kingdom, containing, as left by DeCandolle, upwards of 600. In that series the variations in form are numerous and great, and doubtless many genera will yet be constructed out of the genus Senecio, though, as it now stands, the series as a whole is so natural that DeCandolle confesses, that he could not detect characters of sufficient moment. to enabl ies i subgenera, and was, consequently, forced to distribute them geographically, grouping those of each geographical division into sections more or less natural. According to these geographical groups it appears that the genus most predominates in Africa, pecially t ls the Southern extremity, whence 178 species have been obtained, and including Madagascar and Mauritius, 214. The Caucasean district, including Europe and the northern pro- vinces of Africa and Asia, furnish 114 ; while the whole of America and her Islands only contribute 150— Tropical Asia and all Australia are still more deficient, as they only give 80 to the stock, that is, 45 for Asia more abounding in species but with a fewer genera e him simply to distribute the species into and 35 for Australia, Many of the genera of this sub-tribe are very nearly allied. The principal difference between Doronicum and Senecio consists in the achenia of the ray of the former being, bald or without pappus, while those of the latter have it. Another genus of this sub-tribe I have separated from Doronicum on the ground of both disk and ray flowers being without pappus; generally, however, the genera of this tribe are much more easily distinguished than those of the preceding. Of this sub-tribe but few species are, so far as Iam aware, admitted into cultivation and some of them, such as Senecio vulgaris, become almost inexterminable weeds. ED SAU Tp ON EE IO ah he Teer a PER RT ee Se ee ee) ee Men a DE AY LS) hres Sete e FS ome Senectonide CE: “é OW YftOM Ce! 5OY Rungist. det Dumphy, Lith. 13 : : (aif CMMI — Vipalense/, L035) Senectont lee COM froH he } 113 TDERCAOWAMEE Com prositee Duwrygity, bb ©fmontcun candotiantt Ie / Mie) NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 13 DORONICUM. Capitulum radiate heterogamous, ray florets one series ligulate, female or sterile by abortion; disk ones hermaphrodite. Achnia beakless oblong turbinate furrowed, those of the ray bald, of the disk pappose. Pappus setaceous several series.— Herbaceous plants with solitary or several capitula, involucrum one or few series, scales linear: recept. ebracteolate. This is a small genus of about 20 species nearly half of which are natives of India and five of these found on. the Neilgherries. The two figured give a good idea of the habits and general appearance of the plants of this genus which are for the most part easily distinguished, except from Senecio, which they gene- rally so greatly resemble that close examination is required for their discrimination. Doronicum LessENGIANUM (Arn.) stem eed eens Ne gt thd eee in pastures, A very ramou terete striated hairy: leaves Rie te, amplex oblong are patted son: ise eply and “regularly towards the ang very leafy about the middle, - inciso-serrated : orymbs few c oe minal: in- in slender somewhat leafy “pednccle, bearing irs 2S volucrum see athe scales linear s whalain: the rarely three, nearly naked pedicelled, capitula : leaves interoe ones sa ong ade ie muricately pris oblong, pinnatifidly narrow, lo e ba po 8-10, narrow oval, trved.—D. C. i.e. revolute on the margin, hispid on both sides, but es- 6. 322 ewes ccptlae- Meveraie sceabra, D. C. pecially the under : peduncles leafy at the base, pedi- be cels furnished with a few minute sc — bractioles cales of the Prarie linear, pointed, coarsely his- Neilgherries, me flowering cool season after the pid on the back : ligule about 9, Sencedacs acutish, rains. This plant is found growing in moist soil near 4 nerved. springs and w ys courses. The flowers are large an rather handsome, but the plant as awholeiscommon This I consider a more ornamental plant oe looking. It is however very charecturiatls of the much fitter for the garden than the other. enus, and to any one ee to study its characters a small leaves and compar atively rp mae vellow suitable a a for the purpose flowers entitle it to that distinction, and doubtless were it an exotic brought from Europe it ‘tie find favour, Doronicum CaNnDoLI pole (Arn.) suffruticose ra- but being a native easily procured, it seems to be mous: branches striated n oh cpatens few (1-2) Sera undeserving of notice. Another species n a i=) BZ o ase is > a E fp" 3 Ss o a | i) <5 Q ia is] a B¢ Lond @ o oO 9 ‘i ‘pp oo Le oS * § a 3s J eo is] fe e tifid; lobes short, oblong gs Bote sacnoally shortly with Senecio which I notice for the purpose of show- dentate: peduncles minutely bracteolate at the apex: ing how much these se era resemble each other in involucrum 1 series, ee er wees hispid habit and appearance on x yor ogre , harro oval, 3- rved.— D. 6. 3 2 Amat N ulce-- Matava une t 06 439. : SENECIO. Capitulum homagamous discoid or heterogamous radiate: flowers of the ray female ligulate, Branches of the style of the hermaphrodite flowers truncated, the point only penicellate. Achenia beakless terete or angularly furrowed. Pappus pilose several series, caducous.—Herbs or shrubs, sometimes climbing, with alternate leaves and solitary, corymbose or panicled inflorescence : involucrum one series, sometimes calyculate with accessory squamelle, often with the points of the scales sphacellate : receptacle naked alveolate. Flowers of the disk always yellow, those of the ray usually ‘so, but sometimes white or or purplis Through some error on the part of the Lithographer, only one species of this genus has been kept for this work in place of two, a discoid and radiate one as I intended. The error is of less consequence as the two species of Doronicum may both be looked upon as representing species of Senecio until the achenia of the ray florets are examined and found destitute of pappus which is the essential difference between the two genera, It may perhaps be supposed that the genus might be easily divided into two principal sections according as the capitula have or have not a ray: but on this point DeCandolle observes that, by the adoption of that charac- ter the most nearly allied species, or even varieties of the same species, would be disjoined : the same re- mark is applicable to several other characters that have been supposed suitable for this — 14 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Of the 45 species mentioned above as indigenous in India 7 are found on the Neilgherries or ith of the whole. This seems a fair proportion considering how large a portion of the genus is extratropical, the bulk of the remaining $ths being from the Himalayas and upper provinces of India, very few, if any, being found on the plains within the tropies. SENECIO CoRYMBOsUS (Wall—D. C.) stem scand- not this rather a Cacalia ? This question it appears to i the affirmative, i ent, terete, araneose (appearing as if covered with cob- me may be safely answered in ive, in as ) leaves petioled exstipulate, cordately suborbi ch as it perfectly agress with both the character of cular, shortly acuminated, subserrated; glabrous above the genus and of the section Cissampelopsis : but it may . t the base corymbs axillary and terminal compactly polycephal- tween the two genera and wherein do they differ from ous : he base: Kleinia? So igulee 6-12 lines long, limb about 2 inches in diameter, 10 includi g all three, which fact, alone, goes far to prove tubular florets—D. C. 1. ¢. 6. 364. is i d in that mass species which has set at defiance the efforts of even so Neilgherries in clumps of jungle climbing to a great acute and perfect a systematist, as the late very cele- extent over the adjoining trees. DeCandolle asksis brated Professor DeCandolle, to reduce them to order. Tribe 5 Cynarex. Style of the hermaphrodite lowers nodosely thickened above, often penicellate at the knot, branches sometimes cohering sometimes free, puberulous exteriorly : stigmatic series not prominent, extending to the points of the branches and there confluent. This, like the preceding, is a large and interesting Tribe, embracing most of the true thistles, artichokes, marigolds, burdocks, &c., DeCandolle enumerates as belonging to it 81 genera distributed into 11 Sub-tribes, 13 of which genera furnish Indian representatives. None of these merit much consideratien here,except perhaps, Carthamus tinctorius, the saff- flower, the petals of which yield a pink dye, and are prepared and sold as a substitute for saf- fron. Many of the thistles, indeed the tribe generally, are characterized by intense bitterness, hence many of them have at different times been held in repute as remedial agents, though few seem to have preserved their reputation. A few are used as food, such as the artichoke Cardoon, &c., the seed of others are pressed for their oil; and afew are admitted into the garden as ornamental objects. Sub-tribe Carduinee. Capvitula homogamous with numerous equal florets, flowers sometimes dioicous, scales of the involucrum many series Free, often ending in a spiney point. Corolla 5 cleft. Filaments usually pilose. papillose or glabrous. Anthers ecauilate or shortly caudate. Achenia glabrous beakless with a terminal areola. Pappus phimose or pilose the bristles often united into-a ring at'the base but not bound by the prominent margin of the achenium. To this sub-tribe the artichoke (Cynara) the multiform thistles (Carduus and Cirsium) which cover the fields and waysides in Europe, and the equally common, but more-amusing, Burdocks all belong. CIRSIUM. Capitulum homogamous. Flowers hermaphrodite or dicicous : tube of the corolla short, throat oblong. 5 cleft. _Anthers ecaudate. Stigmas cohering. Achenia oblong compressed glabrous membranaceous ecostate with a fleshy terminal arcola. Herbaceous thistle like plants : involucrum imbricated scales more or less prickly pointed, receptacle frimbriliferous; flowers purple or yellow. This isa large genus including “according to DeCandolle’s enumeration, 140 species, three only of which seem to find a place in the Indian Flora, the one here represented occupying the Higher mountain SPOREAOMM ACE COVA LOMA. Sh) NGS ain ‘ My Mee . eS wg WN te A-One yay Aiphang ales | J g (2G /wenypu DIV WIN YW) “Tap YP LbUING v9 H Uti iN NY se Wy, 5 s% , d . / awonelhy) NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 15 ranges of the south while the other two are confined to the north. The genus generally is of extra tropical origin, Europe, Asia Minor, and North America being the regions in which the species principally abound. The Neilgherry species is also t met with on the Pulney range and I think on the Sherveroy hills, but of that I am not quite certain. CiRsIUM ARGYRACANTHUM (D.C.) leaves semi-am- = Very common on ane Sing qe about equally so plexicaul serrately pinnatifid, ciliato-spinulose, the on the Pu Iney mo In moist rich soil it not lobes ending in strong nae ; beneath andthe stem unfrequently asain the height of 6 or 7 feet. It may arachnoideo-villous : capitula pone f -congested: be met with at most seasons in flower, but is in = bractese many cleft very Brey scales of the inyolu- fection in August and ore oa ay Flowers pale p crum terminating in strong spines.—D. Ce . 2.6. 640. ple. Tribe Cichoracex. capitula homogamous flowers all ligulate 5-toothed or 5-nerved. Style cylindrical above and, with its more or less elongated some- what obtuse branches, equally pubescent : the stigmatic series of glands ending about the middle of the Branches no where confluent. Herbaceous, rarely shrubby, milky plants with alternate leaves. This is a very distinct and generally most easily recognised tribe and the plants so constant in these floral characters that, once known, it is scarcely possible afterwards to mistake them. To this tribe belongs the well known Lettuce, Sow Thistle, Hawks-weed, Dandelion, Goats’ beard, Succory, &c., most of them to be met with on the hills either wild or in gardens. The number of genera referred by DeCandolle to this tribe is 83, some of which, however, it appears to me, might well be dispensed with. Of these 83 genera I have species indigenous to India, but on this point I feel some uncertainty exists, as I cannot help thinking that DeCandolle has, while elaborating this last tribe of his great work, fallen into one or two errors which seem to cast a shade of doubt over some other parts of this division. ‘Lhe plant for example, which I have here called Microrhyncus, is described under Lactuca by D.C. the former having 5 angled beakless achznia the latter having them compressed and abruptly terminating in a filiform beak. Again, I find Luctuea Heyneana agrees much better with the character of Brachyramphus than with that of Lactuea whence I feel disposed to infer that the whole of D. C.’s section ‘ Mycelis” of Lactuca would be better placed under Brachyramphus which has a short beaked, muricated, achenium in op- position to the long-beaked smooth one of Lactuca. The properties of this tribe are peculiar, the species are all milky and many of them possess well marked narcotic qualities such as the Lettuce and Succory, though not to such extent as to unfit them for esculents when properly cultivated and used young and succu- lent. In Europe the chicory is cultivated for the sake of its tap roots which are used asa substitute for coffee and are said certainly to improve that most agreeable beverage when properly torrified and mixed in small quantities. ‘The scorzonera and salsafy are also cul- tivated for their roots, the latter of which especially, furnish a fine flavoured vegetable. Several others enjoy considerable reputation in domestic medicine in Europe, but being un- known in India need not be noticed here. The two plants selected to illustrate this tribe are referable to two sub-tribes Lactucee and Hieraciee, the distinction between which is mainly derived from the 16 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. pappus which is soft delicately filiform and smooth in the former, while it is somewhat rigid and rough in the latter. ‘The other points of distinction are fluctuating and less to be depended upon, being more or less common to both. Sub-tribe Lactucex Receptacle epaliaceous or rarely paliaceous : pappus hair-like fugaceous, soft silvery white. To this section Lactuca, Sonchus and several other nearly allied genera, in addition to the one here represented, belong; the species of the genera Brachyramphus and Youngia have so much the habit of Sonchus that they might easily be mistaken but for the achenia which in this tribe, in many instances, furnish excellent easily detected generic characters, as the following examples will show. Zactuca achen. sublentcular furnished with a filiform beak. Jicrorhyncus achen. oblong, 5-angled beakless. Brachyram- phus achen, muricated short beaked neither angled nor ribbed. Youngia achen beakless longitudinally striated. Sonchus achien. beakless longitudinally ribbed often transversely muriculate between the ribs. Mulgidium acheen beaked, beak dilated, saucer-like at the apex. MICRORHYNCUS. Capitula several flowered. Achznia 4-rarely 5-angled subrostrate at maturity ; beak wanting in the ovary. Coste thick subrugose. Pappus pilose.— Herbaceous perennials, involucrum cylindrical, calyculato- imbricate at the base : receptacle naked : flowers yellow. To this genus DeCandolle assigns only six species three of which are Indian. The one here figured T have added by removing it from the genus Lactucain which he had, perhaps through oversight, erroneously placed it, as it certainly does not belong to that genus. The other three species are natives of the plains, one is common on the sands near the beach all along the Coromandel Coast. HYNCUS GLABRA (R.W. Lactuca glabra __Neilgherries rather common to be met with in flower D. e ) Y elahiond stem naked, dichotomously branched at all seasons bu Be ost abundant during the rains about equal or a little hat ts 3 the leaves ; leaves from July to Dec inber I have ventured to remove elongato-linear, some acute, either entire this plant from the genus in which D. C. placed it, as or dentate : capitula coryesiiene ‘long pedicelled cylin- the achenium corresponds seergicls wie the one drical 7-8 flowered : involucrum calyculate with lan- and not at all with the other. I e ache- ceolate squamelle ; squame 5-6 linear lanceolate nium is si ttened and abruptly ietathened? into a long somewhat scariose on the margin, thrice as long as the filiform : in itis pentangular and scarecly ealyculus ; ae: five angled obscurely beaked.— _beaked. bate tos of - leaves sometimes nearly wanting often- er eaves D 3 inches long, 2-4 lines broad.— Sub-tribe Hieraciex. | Receptacle epaliaceous : pappus Siliform, rigid, fragile, becoming dirty white or yellow. Two genera only of this sub-tribe, so far asI can discover, have Indian r tati hich ous, as the large genus Hieracium, including nearly 200 species, is to a great extent dite in its habits, and therefore one which, a priori, might be expected at least on the Himalayas, if not further south, but does not as yet appear to have been met with on these mountains. The genus Mulgedium, on the other hand, furnishes 7 Indian species out of 23, the total number yet known. Six of these are from the oe range and one, that here rep ted, from the Neilgherries. All the species are alpine plants. MULGEDIUM. Capitula many flowered. Achenia glabrous compressed, often nerved on both sides, attenuated up- wards into a beak expanding at the apex into a cup-shaped disk. Pappus one or several series, bristles rigid rough, greygish or white. Erect ramous herbs with pinnatifid leaves and racemose or panicled capitula ; invo- luerum calyeulately imbricate, that is, the exterior scales are much shorter and subimbrecate, receptate naked, ee flowers blue or purple. eas J i: 7 the OCMC Con fe Htce / | MNS Haagiak; del S Duryihy, Die: UY, as Fy ae . | } “Ui fldf by" 4 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 17 This seems a peculiarly distinct and well marked genus. In habit, it so far agrees with Sonchus that the only British species, a very rare Highland plant, has hitherto been referred to that genus. The beaked achenia, however, expanding at the apex into a saucer shaped disk at once distinguishes them. The pap- pus too is most distinct, in Sonchus it is as fine, smooth and fexible as silk, in Mulgedium rigid and, as seen under the Microscope, decidedly rough. The purple flowers of the one and the yellow ones of the other are also ready marks of distinction. glabrous, somewhat panicled at the apex: cauline high flowers purple. Jeaves runcinately pinnatifid, doubly crenate, dilate and somewhat stemclasping at the base, terminal lobe — Neilgherries_ not unfrequent in jungly ground and subrhomboid, attenuated upwards, mucronate, some- by road sides, flowering during rainy and cool seasons. what hairy on both sides, especially on the veins be- neath ; floral ones entire lanceolate : pedicels hairy __ It is abundant by the road side leading up to Kelso at the apex : capitula ovate, scales of the involucrum , Cottage and also in the wood behind the house down imbricate, exterior ones hairy or the back: achenia towards the stream. But I have seen it many other LOBELIACE. This, so far as regards the number of its genera and species, is a rather extensive order, and interesting as forming the nearest point of approach between the isolated Com- posite and the rest of the vegetable kingdom. In the last tribe of Composite, Cichoracee, the flowers are all ligulate, that is, split along one side, the anthers are coherent and the juice is milky. In Lobeliacee, the coralla is in like manner split along one side, the anthers cohere and the juice is milky. Here the analogy may be said +o cease, leaving still one point of great importance, widely at variance, between the two families. In Composite the ovary is 1 celled with a single erect ovule; in Lobeliacce it is 2 or 3 celled with numerous ovules attached all over the surface of a large axillary placenta. It is the peculiarity of the ovary in connection with their very perfect capitulate flowers which isolates Composite from the rest of the vegetable world. The relationship be- tween Lobeltacee, Campanulacee, and some others, and Composite is remarked upon by all wri- ters on natural affinities of plants, but to me it appears that, at the narrowest part, the straight by which they are separated, is stilla broad one. The Composite in the vegetable world may be compared to New Holland in the terrestrial, an immense continent surrounded by a wide ocean studded with islands, some, such as Lobeliace and Campanulacce, very near, but still distinctly apart. The one celled ovary with a solitary erect ovule combined with per- fect epigenous capitulate flowers, so universal in Composite, is no where else to be met with. Dipsacce and Valarianee make as near an approach to the ovary of Composite as Lobeliacee do to the flower, but they are different: in them the ovule is pendulous from the apex of the cell, in Composite it is erect from the base. Lobeliacez are very generally diffused over the earth’s surface, but certainly predo- minate more in the warmer regions bordering the tropics than within that zone. This habit will account for their much greater predominance on the higher ranges of hills in ‘ F 18 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. this country than on the plains, though they are still to be met with, even down to the beach in the Carnatic. The few however that do seek the plains only come to perfection during the cool season and in wet or even marshy soils, being most frequently met with on the banks of Paddyfields. ‘Iwo extend far north into the arctic regions, one of which, LZ, Dortmanna, as if to shelter itself from the sudden variations of temperature to which the air in these regions is subject, grows under water, except the flower stalk, which rises above during the summer and autumn to flower and ripen its seed. The number of Indian species of the order is not considerable and mostly belong to the genus Lobelia, of which I have 7 species appertaining to the Peninsular flora. The properties of this family are most remarkable. I mentioned above, as one of the points of similarity between the Chicories‘and Lobelias, that they both abound in milky juice. The properties of these juices are however widly different, that of the Chicories being mildly narcotic and tonic, while that of the Lobelias is excessively acrid and poison- ous, destructive even to cattle arid horses that eat them, and the mere odour of one of the species is, it is said, so powerfully poisonous, as to cause sickness and vomiting. The econo- mical or medical properties and uses to which our Indian ones may be applied does not seem to have been investigated, as no notice is any where to be found of them. As orna- mental objects very many of the family are well worthy the attention of the gardener and 1 cannot help feeling surprise at their rarity in the flower plots and borders on these Hills. LOBELIA. Calyx 5-lobed ; tube obconical ovoid or hemispherical. Corolla longitudinally split along the upper side, bilabiate ; tube cylindrical or funnel shaped straight; the superior lip often smaller and erect, the infe- rior usually spreading 3-lobed or rarely 3-toothed. Anthers the two lower ones, or sometimes all, bearded at the apex. Ovary inferior or half superior and sometimes even almost superior.—Herbs or rarely shrubs with alternate leaves usually ee spiked flowers, with axillary pedicels, the corolla being blue, or white, or violet, orred and yellow mixe This genus, as left,by Linneus, embracing the whole of the order, so far as known to him, only included 27 species. There are now 27 genera, while the single genus Lobelia includes upwards of 200 published species and the family of Lobeliacee about 400. This family affords an interesting example of the rapid extension of our __ knowledge of the vegetable kingdom in recent times. In 1768 when Linneus published his 12th edition, the last edited by himself, of the Systema Natur 27 species were known, 80 years after in 1848, the number had inereased to 400, an average increase throughout that long period of nearly 5 per annum. Out of that vast number the Indian list scarcely amounts to 20 species, showing how little this family partakes of a tropical cha- racter. Five of these 20 are indigenous on the Neilgherries and one of them, Lobelia excelsa, perhaps the largest of the genus. There are several yet to be added ; my own collection contains 10 or 11 species, some of which are still unpublished. There is a small cespitose species much cultivated in pots, by amateurs, under the strange name of “ Neilgherry grass” I suspect the Lobelia succulenta of Blume, a Java plant, but of which { cannot make myself certain, as I have not aspecimen to examine. It is procumbent, roots at the joints, and in a short time quite covers the pot witha rich green carpet, variegated with small blue flowers forming a great contrast to the tall ungainly Z. excelsa of the Hills. * Cchovacen Ries d : : 119 ay oar 9 ee I DD it oo bY Wo wy | i i \ ; . ay! Sy SREY, | DV Np bd fi y Paar f : t/ ff oe Vilgiium Neilgher yonde/ EM PA ey v / i i ; i Ot 7 A ,/ 4 Vet ¢ Wi, Ni \ ee | — fr Ym Puy AY\ A < [A= ip f iL) \. ON } | 5 : 4 | / o " vl oo ” =e, Ly 2 : Seb elia enced (Leschen/) ae NEILGHERRY PLANTS. ao 1170. LopeLta TRIGONA. (Roxb.) glabrous, bran- nate, glanduloso-denticulate, twice the length of the ches diffuse, erect, or ascending and like the stems pedicels: lobes of the calyx erect, linear-lanceolate, trigonous: leaves subsessile, ovato-subcordate, repand- denticulate, thrice the length of the hemispherical ly dentate, teeth mucronulate: pedicels slender, lon- tube; equalling the length of the tube of the pube- ger than the leaves, bibractiolate at the base : tube of scent corolla.—D: C. Prod. 7—381. t the length of the tube: corolla small, glabrous, longer | Very common on the Neilgherries. A tall, ungainly e calyx : anthers enclosed, all bearded at the looking plant, flowering during the rains, from May apex : capsule obovoid.—D. C. Prod. 7, 360. to September but to be met with in flower at all sea- : sons. The stems are annual but ts seem peren In moist pastures on the borders of rice fields fre- nial. The stems are currently met with from 6 to 8 quent, also abundant in swampy grounds on the Neil- feet high, but may often be seen from 10 to 12 feet, gherries. flowers pale yellowish, tinged with lilac, pubescent, ovary more than half superior. This is usually a low diffuse plant growing amongst grass. Stems weak and succulent, the leaves succulent i i when . Many persons seem to have an idea that this is a Flowers pale blue. The habit of the plant is well re- species of Tobacco, “Hill Tobacco,” and have asked by presented in the drawing. what process of cultivation it becomes the tobacco of ommerce. I presume that ere this time the readers 1173-4. LoBEtia EXCELSA. (Lesch.) stem very of these pages do not require to be told that, no pro- large, herbaceous, erect : leaves lanceolate, shortly pe- cess of cultivation could ever so alter this plant as to tioled, narrow at the base, acuminate, denticulate, convert it into tobacco though, for any thing I know puberulous above, tomentose beneath : racemes folia- to the contrary, it may greatly resemble that plant in ceous pubescent, many flowered: bracts long acumi- its properties, but that is improbable. CAMPANULACEZ. It is still a subject of discussion among Botanists whether Bell-flowers and Lobelias should be viewed as separate families or sections of one larger group. The ques- tion is too abstruse for this book, but it may be remarked in passing, that if properties be allowed to have any weight in deciding the question, it may soon be set at rest as nothing can be more widely distinct. The juice of both is milky, but in this, having a large admix- ture of mucilaginous matter, it is of the mildest and least irritating quality, while in the other, as already stated, it is in many instances highly acrid, corrosive and poisonous. This, added to certain Botanical distinctions, such as the irregular flowers and united anthers of the one and the regular bell-shaped corollas and free anthers of the other, certainly make out a strong case in favour of their separation. ; In regard to its extent, it is nearly on a par with the other, the number of genera, in this being 25 with about 450 species. Like Lobeliacee it isa pre-eminently extra-tropical family, the Indian members bearing about the same proportion in both, and in either case nearly the whole inhabiting the more elevated alpine regions. It seems curious that they should be found so sparingly on the Himalayas, considering their frequency on the Euro- pean and Caucasean ranges of Mountains. According to Alphonse DeCandolle “ the chain of the Alps, Italy, Greece, Caucasus, and the Altai range are their native country . the same high authority informs us, the Cape of Good Hope is another centre of habitation, containing not fewer that 63 species; a number considerably increased since he wrote. The properties of this family are of inferior note, much more associating with those of Cichoracece than [obeliaccee, the roots of some of them being esculents and formerly esteem- ed very nourishing and, on aczount of their milky juices, especially appropriate to lactescent women! As garden ornaments, many species are held in high esteem and very generalty 20 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. admitted into flower gardens, though I question if any species of the whole family is so gene- rally admired as the delicate and modest Hare-bill of the English pastures, whose unassuming beauty has been so often sung by rural parts. I have never seen a growing specimen of that plant on the Hills, though I feel sure that its introduction and naturalization there is desired by many, as adding another link to the many associations with our native country which these favoured regions already supply. There are no want of Campanulas or Bell- flowers in the Hill gardens, but the true Harebell or Witch’s thimbles, of the Scotch pea- santry, is not among them. This family presents one of those beautiful instances of design on the part of the Great Architect, so often passed unheaded by the careless observer, or if noticed, casually denominated “a curious provision of nature” but which cannot be too often or too forcibly dwelt upon by those who would teach the attributes of the Deity, by an exposition of the wisdom and design which meet us at every step in studying his works of creation. As it is simply and clearly explained by Dr. Lindley in the 14 letter of his Lady’s Botany I shall extract the passage entire. “From the base of the corolla, and consequently from the summit of the ovary, spring five stamens, whose filaments are broad, firm and fringed, curving inwards at the base and bending over the top of the ovary, as if to guard it from injury; their points touch the style and keep the anthers parallel and in contact with it till they shirvel up and fall back which happens immediately after the flower unfolds. The style is a taper, stiff column, about the length of the corolla and longer than the stamens. It is covered all over up to the tips of the stigma with stiff hairs which nature has provided to sweep the pollen out of the cell of the anthers as the style passes through them in lengthening. If it were not for this simple but effectual contrivance, as the anthers burst as soon as ever the corolla opens, their pollen would drop out of the nodding ftowers and be lost before the stigma was expanded and ready to receive the fertilizing influence ; {the hairs of the style catch the pollen and keep it till insects, wind, or accident brush it down upon the inverted stigmas.” ‘Ywo genera of this order are found on the hills, the one Wahlenbergia bearing some resemblance to the Hare-bell of Europe, but very different, the other Campanula, of which there are several species, but none of them common. The order has been divided into two tribes or suborders, namely : WAHLENBERGIER, with the capsule opening on the vertex, within the circle of the limb of the calyx, and CampanvLeEa, with the capsule opening laterally. The Neilgherry Flora presents examples of both these tribes. WAHLENBERGIA, Calyx 3-5 cleft, Corolla 3-4-5 lobed above or more rarely cleft down to the middle, funnel shaped, subcampanulate, or tubular. Stamens 5-3 free, filaments dilated at the base. Style hairy, especially on the upper part. Stigmas 3-5, or 2 at length spreading, usually linear short, Capsule 5-3-2 celled, valves septifer- ? VA Campane /23 Hangiak, ae Nikdentergia agushid JED EG), Yesinder wect! Campumulace® /2L, bovindoo, ded! itt af va j Dumphy/, Lith’ Ve » hay) A Lp f a 3S boy Yh, CS) 4, : GVHACHIUOELMUMW C BUCH fC. a ) fa} A é NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 91 ous dehiscent at the apex; the cells when 5 opposite the lobes of the calyx. Seeds numerous, minute. Herbace- ous annuals, sometimes perennials, or even shrubby, most abundant in the Southern hemisphere, especially about the Cape of Good Hope. Leaves alternate, congested toward the base. Peduncles terminal and axillary, often elongated, forked, Pedicels long slender terminal or leaf opposed ; flowers drooping ; capsules erect. This genus, as it now stands in DeCandolle’s Prodromus, includes 100 species, only 9 of which are natives of India. Three or probably 4 of these are found in the Peninsula ; the remainder are from the Hima- layas 1175. WAHLENBERGIA AGERSTIS. (Alph. D. C.) 1176. WAHLENBERGIA INDICA ? (Al. D. C.) stem stem erect, ramous from the base, pilose below: lower ramous below and like the leaves pilose: leaves linear leaves approximated, narrow linear, nearly entire, un- entire acuminate: peduncles 1 flowered glabrous : dulated on the margin; peduncles usually dichotomous calyx glabrous, tube ovoid, lobes narrow acute: with very short bracts: tube of the calyx glabrous corolla tubular about a half longer than the calyx, es: co- ca acon C. Prod, 7,434. rolla funnel shaped about a twice the length of the eilgherries in moist pasture land. In the opera- lobes of the calyx: capsule obovoid.—D. C. Pred7. tion of transfer this figure has been represented too . 434. hairy, in the original it was fin ilose. On this ac- Neilgherries frequent, in flower at nearly all seasons, count it would probably have been better to have sup- rs pale blue. am not quite sure that this is pressed the figure, but it is hoped this explanation will identical with the Nepaul plant or rather, whether I suffice to correct the error of the existence of which I ot t viewed this as W. Indicarather was not aware until the whole impression had been than the following which isas much less common plant printed off. on the hills and is perhaps a new species. Ifhowever Since the above was printed I have examined seve- this is W. Indica, then it seems probable the two ral additional specimens and now feel satisfied that species ought to be united, as this corresponds well different specimens vary in their hairiness and that this with the character in all points, except in the station. is not materially in excess. CAMPANULA. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla slightly 5-lobed or 5-cleft usually campanulate. Stamens 5 free, filaments broad membranaceous at the base. Style during flowering covered, except at the base, with collecting hairs. Stig- mas 3 or 6 filiform. Capsule 3-5 celled, valves 3-5 dehiscing laterally. Seed ovate flattened or ovoid. Herbs usu- ally perennial, sometimes low and pressed to the ground sometimes two or three feet high, erect, many flower- ed, with the cauline leaves often differing from the radical ones, All natives of the northern hemisphere. This is a very large genus including, with the more recent additions, above 200 species and all from the Northern hemisphere. Alph. D.C. in his monagraph of the order divided it into two sections the one having and the other wanting reflexed appendages in the clifts of the calyx. These primary sections, are fur- ther divided according to the number of cells of the capsule the position of the dehiscing pores, &c., all the Indian species belong to the second section “ sinus calycis non obtecti, capsula 3 locularis” and the two first of the following species to the sub-section “ eapsula nutans, pedicellata, valvis adbasin sitis dehiscens.” This mode of dihescence by means of valves situated on the sides or near the base of the capsule is peculiar to this genus and readily distinguishes it from all the others of the order. Itis thus familiarly explained by Dr. Lindley in the work already quoted, Lady’s Botany. “ But how are the dust-like seeds to find their way out of this lidless box or penetrate its tough sides? Considering what happens in so many other plants we should nata- rally expect that it would take place by a separation of the edges of the three carpels into valves, near their points; but upon looking at the top of the ovary between the sepals, we find that part still to ’ er than its sides and without the slightest appearance of opening. It is by rending the thinnest part of the mies of the fruit in the fork of the three principal ribs that these valves are produced and that nature provides for the escape of the seeds. The rending takes place by the final drying of the sides of the fruit ben every part becomes stretched so tight, that any weak portion must of necessity give way. As the stretching takes place with uniformity, and as the skin at the forks is always more tender than any other part, the Spans. of the valves will consequently occur with the same invariable certainty as the formation of the seeds. The valves thus described are seen in the magnified figures of the capsules in the three species figured, while by the posi- tion in which they are placed, another fact is illustrated, namely that in two of them the tapetle droops or hangs down at the period of maturity while in the third it remains erect, circumstances which have not been overlooked in grouping the species into sections for facilitating their determination, the two first belonging to the section “ Capsula nutans” the third to the one “ capsula erecta.” G 92 NEILGHEBRY PLANTS. CaMPANULA ALPHONSII. (Wall.) decumbent one- places. The original specimens of this species were flowered : stem pubescent, cauline leaves sessile, sub- from Nepaul, but so far as character enables me to. de- lanceolate acute, denticulate, pilose above, incanous cide, the Southern plant does not differ. beneath : calyx pubescent, divisions acute serrated or sometimes lobed, about half the length of the campa- CAMPANULA FULGENS. ( Wall.) stem erect, about a nulate puberulous corolla. D. C. Prod. 473. (very foot high, hairy: leaves lanceolate acuminated at slightly altered.) oth ends, short petioled, serrated : flowers subsessile, Well tvarvins forming dense tufts in clefts of rocks. axillary solitary - together, approximated to- The specimen represented is very different from the wards the apex: lobes of the calyx subulate erect one described by D. C. ugh unquestionably the entire, about the length of the infundibuliform gla- same species ;I have therefore in the character ven- brous corolla—D. C. Prod. 7. p. 477. tured to make one or two slight alterations, but I sus- eilgherries, on grassy slopes and pastures, fre- pect scarcely enough to give a correct idea ofthe quent. I have another form, apparently, of this plant species. with the flowers congested into a capitulum. Flower- i and J CAMPANULA RAMULOSA. (Wall.) stem erect, pilose confined to that season as it may be found in flower at ramous ; leaves lanceolate sessile, crenato-dentate, veins t a prominent beneath : pedicels axillary and terminal: fer from the Bengal one in the calyx, being considera- i sus the length of the cylindrical villous corolla; capsule picion of its being a distinct species though, from its turbinate drooping. D. C. Prod. 7. 473. agreeing so well with the character in other respects, I Neilgherries, in woods and about hedges in shady cannot venture on giving it a new name. VACCINIACE &.—Bitzerry-trise. Botanists are divided in opinion whether this family ought to be kept distinct or should form a suborder of the Heath-tribe, Hricacee. The question is not easily answered being one on which much may be said on both sides without leading to conviction on either, such being the case I shall not attempt to discuss it here beyond merely stating that those who insist on keeping them distinct, do so on the ground of the ovary being in this inferior, ard the fruit generally a berry, while in Ericacee the ovary is superior, that is, lodged within the tube of the corolla, and the fruit capsular, opening by valves to give exit to their innu- merable dust-like seed. In all other respects they may he said to associate on the most amicable terms, as may be seen from the examples here given. In regard to this controversy it may perhaps be remarked, en passant, that it would be fortunate if all our orders rested on as satisfactory characters, even though it may well be doubted whether, in the present instance, they are ealculated to produce conviction, especially after adverting to the characters of Lobelia in which it is said the ovary is in- ferior or half superior (see Z. exedsa) or quite superior ; or still better to those of Rosacee in which both structures are abundantly obvious in its different suborders : or perhaps better than either to Myrsiniacee, where in the section Mesee, the flowers are epigynous while the rest of the order has them hypogynous. The plants composing this order are generally, if not always, trees or shrubs of great beauty, usually with alternate leaves and bell shapec or long tubular flowers in which pink is the predominating colour, though in some they are the purest white, forming lovely clusters on the ends of the branches. None of the Indian ones with which I am acquainted possess this character they, for the most part, having elongated racemes : but some have their flowers solitary from the axils of the leaves. The stamens with few exceptions are in- cluded within the tube of the flower and are very curiously formed bodies, especially the anthers. ‘The proper anther, or pollen case, is two celled and opens by pores: these for the most part are surmounted by two long tubes open at the apex and furnished on the back with two bristles. These bristles are not however so constantly present as the horns or tubes. These appendages are so general, that they have procured for the group of orders in which they occur the characteristic name of Bicornes. They are found inall the Neilgherry f (umfiarUled lanfa MMM aE | y 3 a Campanile alpborsiiy fell) 2b alae a. YF “) a ?) VA Campane. Caripuaruliced /2 o = tiene Soe ear . eee: ens Peli aie ee ~ RP ie met agit, Dumpphy, Lith SOE A pee eae 2 — = ¥ Govindoo, del’ : Vi fi jp user 2, CG pana falgend (Mill) OFZ NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 93 species except Rhododendron, in which they are wanting. Inits geographical distribution the family is very decidedly extratropical the northern parts of Europe and especially north America being truly their native country. Many however are also found in south America beyond the tropics inhabiting the elevated valleys of the Andes, asin India they do those of the Himalayas, Neilgherrics, Pulnay mountains, Newera Ellia of Ceylon, &c. In upper Assam, inthe Khasyah mountains they also greatly abound. ‘There the late Mr. Griffith collected between 20 and 30 species. The fruit of nearly all possess an agreeable acid, whence many are in daily use as esculents in the northern counties of Europe. ‘The well known Cranberry so famous for tarts belongs to this family and the fruit of the species here figured V. Leschenaultit, when fully ripe, makes avery excellent substitute, with the exception of a dash of bitter with which the acid is combined, requiring an additional quantity of sugar to render it equally palatable. With this addition I can safely recommend these berries asa tart fruit, as I have eat many tarts made of them, giving them the preference to some of the preserved fruits of Europe. Beyond that I am not aware of any use to which either of the hill species has been applied. The following generic character and remarks on the genus Vaccinium I repub- lish from my Icones, vol. 4 part Ist, in which I have published figures of 14 species most of them new. VACCINIUM. Calyx adherent, limb 4-5 lobed. Corolla tubular 4-5 cleft. Stamens 8-10 epigynous, anthers ad- nate, 2 celled, often furnished with 2 bristles on the back, the cells ending in a tube open at the apex. Ovary 4-5 celled, placentas ascending, usually, bearing the ovules on the margin. Berry 4-5 celled, often spuriously 10 celled through the adherence of :he walls to the thickened placentas. Seed several in each cell, testa co- riaceous or somewhat bony : albumen fleshy : embryo orthotropus, radicle next the hilum. Trees, shrubs, &c. According to this character it is of no moment whether the lobes of the calyx are large or small, whether the corolla is long or short, thick or thin: the anthers may or may not be bristled, but are always ex- pected to have the cells more or less prelonged into tubes, and to have the number of cells of the ovary equal to those of the lobes of the calyx and corolla, with, more or less distinctly, free ascending placentas and a plurality of ovules. Such is the genus Vaccinium as understood by me when naming the following and se- veral other still unpublished species in my herbarium. DuNAL, in his monagraph of the Order Vaccinia, retains Agapetes and Thibaudia, Endlicher, Miesner, and Lindley unite them. Kunth is followed by Miesner in expressing a doubt as to whether Cera- tostema is distinct from Thibaudia, and Hooker states that he “ cannot understand what arethe essential dis- tinguishing marks between them.” Among the following are species which have been referred by different Botanists to Ceratostema, Agapetes, Thibaudia, Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. To determine among so many genera it became indispensable to examine the characters of all with much care. After the closest scrutiny and careful dissection of the flowers .of all the Indian species in my collection side by side with several ac- knowledged Vaccinia from both America and Europe, I found it utterly impossible, from the characters given, to make out more than one genus among the Asiatic ones, the structure being the same in all. By Roxburgh these would perhaps have been all referred to Ceratostema: Wallich refers them to Thibaudia, while Don and Dunal form the genus Agapetes for their reception. Had long tubular flowers been a constant feature, I might on that account, aided by geographical distribution, have followed these authors, and, assuming that as its essential character, kept up their genus. This however is far from being the case, and is therefore, as a generic character, useless. And on turning to Dunal’s character of Vaccinium, I find the corolla described as “ campanulata, urceolata vel cylindrica.” 24 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. In all the Indian ones it is either urceolate or cylindrical. He describes the stamens as “‘ limbo calycis inserta,” which is the case in all the Indian ones I have examined, and the fruit “ Bacca calyce vestita globosa 4 aut 5 locularis loculis polyspermis, rarissime 10 locularis loculis monospermis” which, except the Jast clause, is equally applicable to the fruit of allI have had an opportunity of examining. The ovary: unfortunately, is not referred to in the character of either genus. The concluding clause of the character may perhaps account for Professor Lindley’s referring one of the species to Gaylussacia which, while that clause remains as part of the — sa Ldsapggtes seems scarcely a distinct genus, the fruit having 10 cells with 1 k. In all other points Dunal’s characters of the 2 genera, are nearly word for word the ‘seis, mes the ‘aboeiion of all the ovules but 2 in each of the 5 cells converts Vaccinium into Galussacia and, unless care is bestowed in the examination, even that is not necessary, as a transverse sectiou of a nearly mature fruit almost always presents the appearance of 10 cells with one seed i in each, and I feel nearly certain that an examination of the ovary will shew that but few of Dunal’s 29 species have it 10 celled with a single ovule in each. G. dependens, an authentic specimen of which was most obliging- ly communicated to me by Mr. Gardner of Ceylon, has a 4 celled ovary with numerous ovules and is in fact a species of Vaccinium with very short anther tubes. Whether Ceratostema can be kept distinct Iam unable to say, but judging from the really essential points of the character, apart from the numerous non-essential ones introduced by Dunal, I think not. Thibaudia has one good distinguishing mark in the union of the filaments between themselves and their at- tachment to the base of the corolla. But if thatis to be taken as the essential character of the genus, then both Macleanea and Anthopterus should be associated as subgenera, the collateral marks derived from the calyx and corolla being scarcely of generic value in a family where these organs are so variable. Influenced by such considerations, I have without hesitation referred all the Indian species to Vac- cinium with the sub-generic appellation 4gapetes to mark their Asiatic orgin. Vaccintum (A) LESCHENAULTII led, pea serrated, — paler beneath, eid on the costa : ees terminal, about length of the lea Neilgherries, frequent, flowering March and April, but usually to be met with in different situations in flower and fruit at all chee The berries which are V. minate at the and leaves: — lanceolate, acute at the base, acu- int, racemes longer than the leaves, erent usua iy confined to the extremities of ue anches: flowers whitish or rose coloured, shor dicelled, sae ished with a large cee bree tea : corolla ovate, slightly pubescent : filam bristled‘ tubes dilated towards the a ow ba of streams Neilgh dant along the banks of the Pycarrah river for a mile “8 Pate above sce Sage g the dry se nay allied by its "teohnibal characters to the former. those made with the cran si or O. macrocarpus 1189. Vaccinium (A) NEILGHERRENSE (R. W.) shrubby, glabrous, except the pubescent young shoots ERICACE:.—H e£aTu-rriseE. An extremely beautiful family of plants and most deservedly reputed among the greatest favourites of the lovers of fine flowers, a commendation more especially applicable to the genus Erica (the true Heath) from which the family derives its name. It is un- necessary to give any general description of the family here, as that would be nearly to repeat what has bsen already said under Vacciniacee, in every thing except the position of the ovary, which, in this, is superior or lodged within the tube of the corolla, while in that, the corolla is seated on the top of the ovary. The fruit also differs; in this it is for the most part dry and capsular, either opening at maturity by the edges of the carpels, or along the divisions of the seed vessel, into as many valves as there are cells in the ovary,or more frequently, along the middle of the cells, leaving the partition adhering to the middle of the valve; while in Vaccinium itis an indehiscent beery with fewer seed and these lodged in pulpy cells. / CAUCE Pe ) Yaga Dumphy, Lil tii fe Wi) HHA VA ee de? spy A. LOT FFB, oe Z 4 7 4 bcfe Wiht hed /'s [ el f Lely Ms Vieccnuygn, as VY aibouun U7, Q. Pes Ee Ba aie Linciniet /9 \ WAC fa th VCs / Ugafuched AMAA ij oe aL Ox Yt We ae a va NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 95 The genus Gaultheria is an intermediate form, or sort of half way house between them; the ovary is at first superior and the mature seed are the small dust-like forms met with in the rest of the family, but the calyx grows with the growth of the seed vessel and by the time it has attained maturity has covered it with a thick pulpy coat giving it quite a berry like appearance which, until dissected, might easily be mistaken for a true berry and mislead the observer as to the family to which, it belongs. The same may, to some extent, be said of the strawberry tree, Arbutus, though from a different cause, the thickening namely of the seedvessel itself, changing the fruit from a capsule into a sort of berry or Nuculanium which, unless carefully looked to, might easily pass for a true one, which, however, differs in being usually inferior or enclosed within the tube of a fleshy calyx. The family very naturally divides itself into four tribes or suborders easily defined and differing so far in habit as to be generally readily recognized, namely ARBUTrE® with in- dehiscent berried fruit and deciduous corolla. ANDRoMEDE# fruit capsular opening along the middle of the cells, (loculicidal) corolla deciduous, buds always scaly. Ertce® fruit capsular loculicidal, or rarely septicidal, corolla withering on the stalk (not deciduous) buds without scales. Ruopore#x fruit capsular splitting along the partitions (septicidal) corolla deci- duous often deeply cleft, flower buds usually scaly. The two Neilgherry species belong to the second and last of these tribes Gaultheria being Andromedious and Rhododendron of course Rhodoreous. These two tribes with Arbutee are principally confined to the northern hemisphere and abound in Europe and North America, while Southern Africa is truly the native country of the true Hricee: a small portion only of the vast genus Erica being in- diginous to countries north of the line. In regard to properties, this family may almost be passed over in silence, not but that some of its members possess them and in considerable energy, but because they are not such as can, in this country at least, be rendered available to the wants of mankind, except as objects of great beauty, pleasing to tke senses and furnishing fine subjects for the flower garden and shrubbery. GAULTHERIA. alyx 5 lobed, afterwards enlarging becoming more or less baccate and enclosing the capsule. Corolla ovate, mouth often contracted 5 toothed. Stamens 10 included, filaments often villous : anthers 4 awned, namely, each cell biaristate rarely muticous. Ovary 5 celled free, embraced at the base by 10 hypo- gynous scales, placente ascending; style filiform ; stigma obtuse, more or less lobed at the apex. Capsule globose, depressed, 5 celled, 5 furrowed, 5 valved, dehiscing loculicidally, the valves bearing the partitions. Seed numerous minute, testa reticulate. Evergreen shrubs or small trees natives of America and India. Leaves alternate, dentate or entire. Pedicels axillary one flowered or racemose, furnished at the apex with two bractioles. Corolla white, rose coloured, or scarlet. In this character there is no allusion to the occasional partial abortion of the stamens shown in figures 4 and 5 of the accompanying plate. This fine genus is one of considera character is the fleshy calyx and consequent spuriously baccate fruit. This can only with certainty be made out in. specimens with fruit far advanced towards maturity which may, perhaps, account ee Sir W. Horker referring our species to Andromeda and D.C. doubtfully to Leucothe in neither of which vag caaserneee exists, both indeed, in the estimation of Endlesher, forming but one genus, the grounds of separation not being, in his opinion, of more than sectional value. ble extent about 50 species being already described. Its essential H “26 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. GAULTHERIA LESCHENAULTII (D. C. G. ovali- shrub with every _~ coriacious leaves and pure folia Wall. List No, 1523. Andromeda Kataghe- white flowers. Berries blue. “rensis, Hook Icon. 246. isanag-ee Katagherensis.D. 1 have adopted DeCandolle’s specific pete, in C. Prod. 7, p. 606 Andromeda fieruosa! Moon) g we preference to Wallich’s having a spec cha- rous, ramuli ps Ai at ag leaves petioled ovate or racter attached : on the same grounds Hooker's spe- obovate, terminating in a gland, crenulate, jetnetunte cific name held priority had he correctly recognized ea emes axiliary or lateral pubescent, a lit- gen ri ld have tle shorter than the leaves, erect : cts concave cies ts indenity of Hooker’s plant with his palit glabrous, one un “A Ng pedicel, two near the own, gure is most characteristic, especially flower. D. C. Prod. 7— be en aided, as It by a good character and descrip- Ruligiaivies: abundan a to be met with in flow The oldest name is undoubtedly Moon’s, but er at all seasons, Itis a S veonaslaeabis sized ramous se a referred it es a wrong geni RHODODENDRON. Calyx 5 parted. Corolla funnel shaped rarely campanulate or rotate sometimes regular sometimes more or less irregular always 5 lobed. Stamens 10 (rarely 6-9 by abortion), not adnate to the corolla, situated before and between the lobes, usually declinate, exserted. Anthers opening by two terminal pores. Capsules 5-celled and 5-valved, or 10-celled and 10-valved dehiscing along the partetions. Seed, attached to an angled columnar axis, compressed, dust-like, subulate.—Shrubs or trees : leaves evergreen petioled entire ; flowers dis- posed in termenal corymbs : the flower buds scaly : corolla conspicuous, purple white or yellow. This character which is copied from DeCandolles Prodromus, will now require to be somewhat modified to admit two new species I have recently published in my Icones. In one the calyx and corolla are 8 lobed with 16 stamens anda 16 celled ovary. Here the relation is preserved only differing in number. In the other the calyx is entre with a free somewhat undulated or crenate limb, the corolla 5 lobed, stamens 15 and the ovary 10 celled, but the forms of the anthers, style, and stigma; the structure and position of the placente# and ovules all agree with those of the other speices. Whether the altered relations in regard the number of parts of the flower, added to a racemose ten- dency in the satan — this ~ aa to become the type of a new — my — acquaintance h+h with the tod etermine, ttn teh a > my analysis prove correct, of which I feel some doubt, as the specimen had suffered from the sienke of — The placentation of this genus, if not indeed of the order, is peculiar. The ovuliferous margins of the carpellary leaf do not, as in most others with axillary placente, coalesce and form a central fleshy placenta, but are inflexed xemaining free, each margin bearing a row of ovules. The draughtsman not observing that peculiarity of structure has conveyed a most erronious idea of the structure of the ovary in his transverse section figure 5. The genus is a large one including, according to DeCandolles list, 44 species, and some have since heen added ; these are all natives of the northern hemisphere inhabiting the colder regions of Europe, America and Asia, several are found on the Himalayas and on the mountains of Java. Ihave one from Malacca and the accompanying is common to the Neilgherries and Nucera Ellia in Ceylon. Many of the species are very handsome and prized as ornaments in the shrubbery. Little seems known regarding their properties, two or three are employed medicinally in Europe on account of the tonic and somewhat narcotic qualities they are known to possess but their use seems limited to domestie medicine. RHODODENDRON ARBOREUM. (Smith.) arboreous, legen in es and ingen Leaves gti colour- leaves lanceolate a scaly beneath : flowers ed beneath, flowers deep crimson. The itself, compact paronee ovary pubescenti-tomentose apparent, from Teaells wing exposed siaations, 8-10 celled. “D. . 1— has tunted appearance ; its oe capi- Neilgherries, very frequent, Flowering in great Pare of eu are always terminal. J Ly OZ tA, —s dy A \ % Oe a em j t } Fs JMLOMAEL bod C Wen 7, MC OH WM OUMI ys : ¥ 4 fp / re Lp Wel. 3 / / id oc i aad Dumply, Lith? y yee ote . ? mY a. NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 27 PRIMULACEA—Primrost-TRIBE. This tribe to which the Primrose, Oxlip, Cowslip, Auricula Lousestrife and Pimper- nel belong, furnishes but few species to the hill flora, three only, so far as I am aware, haying yet been found indigenous on them and these not those endeared to us by early associations through the delight experienced in our juvenile days on beholding, in early spring, sunny banks bedecked with tufts of fragrant yellow flowers when all around was still held in the cold deadly grasp of winter. Two of ours belong to the Lousestrife family (Lysimachia) and the other is a Pimpernel (Anagallis) or “poor man’s weather glass” as it is sometimes called in allusion to its only opening its flowers during fair weather and closing them on the approach of rain. In Europe these genera are found on the plains dowering about Midsummer, while the Cowslips and Primroses are either natives of the cold mountain tops or flower in early spring. To this circumstance perhaps may be attributed the fact ofthe summer forms only extending to our southern mountains, while the spring ones frequent the more northern and colder Himalayas. The flowers of this tribe ate remarkable on account of the position of their sta- mens with regard to the lobes of the corolla. It may here be mentioned that a monopetalous: corolla is assumed to consist of as many petals combined into one as there are lobes, hence ~ that the corolla of the primrose which has five lobes is composed of 5 petals. It may further be observed that in perfectly regular flowers, having double the number of stamens that there are petals, that the first or outer row are alternate with the petals and the second or inner opposite to them. In Primulacee the stamens are always opposite to the lobes of the corolla not placed between them. ‘This is important as indicating a great irregularity in the dower which is attributed to the total suppression of the outer row of stamens. This remarkable peculiarity is only known to occur in three families of exogenous plants Primulacee, Myrsineacee and Plumbaginee. The two first are so closely associated as only to be distinguished by habit, the former being always herbaceous with capsular fruit the latter shrubby or arboreous with drupaceous fruit. ‘These characters can scarcely be admit- ted to be of ordinal value, hence, by rights, the two orders should be united and reduced to the rank of suborders. But as no inconvenience in practice results from their separation all systematic writers seem disposed to leave well alone and let them remain as they are. Another peculiarity of this family is found in the ovary and capsule but is not well brought out in the accompanying dissections, which is, that it consists of a single cell with * free central placenta covered on all sides with ovules which lie flat on its surface. The cause of this is, according to Dr. Lindley, ascertained by dissecting the ovary when very young, long before the expansion of the flower, when it is found to be 5 celled but the slender partitions break and disappear before the flower opens leaving the otherwise very inexplicable appearance designated a “ free central placenta.” ‘The same it is said, is found exist in Myrsineacee but I have not succeeded in verifying the observation in either case. This family is greatly prized by florists on account of the extreme beauty and fragrance of their flowers, and as being the earliest harbingers of spring, a distinction 98 . NEILGHERRY PLANTS. well merited by their bright rich colouring and modest look and early blooming. Some of them possess properties of considerable activity but which it is unnecessary to notice here. LYSIMACHIA. Calyx 5 parted Corolla 5 parted subrotate or campanulate longer than the calyx. Stamens 5 inserted into the base of the corolla: filaments sometimes united at the base; sometimes as many sterile filaments, as fertile ones. Anthers oblong. Capsule globose, 5-10 valved, dehiscing at the apex, many seeded. Herbs, usually perennial: leaves alternate opposite or verticelled entire : flowers axillary racemose, spicate or panicled. This genus, of which there are now nearly 50 species known, is principally confined to the more tem- perate regions of the northern hemisphere. Only 10 species were however known to Linneus, showing that the European proportion of species is not so great as might be supposed. Itis in truth a widely distributed genus in proportion to the number of its species Europe, Asia Minor, India, Ceylon, China, Japan, New Hol- land, Cape of Good Hope and North and South America all claim representatives. Like the N eilgherries, Ceylon claims two species both I think distinct from ours though one is certainly very near our yellow flower- ed L. deltoidea. They are not generally I believe much thought of as garden ornaments, though some of them are not devoid of beauty, as the one here given testifies, but, so far as I am acquainted with the genus, this is a favourable example. It is somewhat remarkable that, though always found in its wild state growing in wet — marshy ground, it bears transfer to the garden and seems to thrive to the full as well as there in dry soil as in its native marshes, LYSIMACHIA (EPHEMEDRUM ) LESCHENAULTII ‘tuse, entire: stamens equal exserted: style filiform. (Dubyin D.C. Prod. V..8.) erect, ramous, leaves D, C. Prod. opposite or ternate Spon sinuate (?)' entire, eilgherries, frequent in low moist or even marshy i neral N acuminate, glabrous, short petioled: flowers ra- soils and ge ly to be met with in flower. ant cemose crowded : bractioles linear subulate, acumina- herbaceous perennial from two to three feet in height. ted, much r icels : calyx much Flowers on first opening reddish-white, streaked with orter than the companulate corolla, divisions linear darker lines afterwards acquiring a rather deep lylac lanceolate acuminate, lobes of the corolla obovate ob- tinge. ANAGALLIS. Calyx 5 parted. Corolla rotate deciduous deeply 5 parted, lobes broad obtuse. Stamens 5 inserted into the bottom of the corolla, free or, rarely, more or less united at the base, filaments bearded. Anthers attached by the back near the base, more or less nodding, introrse. Capsule globose circumcise membrana- ceous, seeds numerous angular immersed in a central placenta. Herbaceous or rarely suffrutiscent plants : Jeaves opposite or alternate : peduncles axillary solitary. Of this pretty and interesting genus 11 species only are known and it may well be doubted whether they all deserve being retained as species. They are, if we may so say, a wandering race and almost always to be found in cornfields where European grain is cultivated.’ It is I suspect through that medium we are indebted for the very pretty one here figured which is sufficiently frequent about Kotegherry where Wheat and Barley are pretty extensively cultivated. Such being the habit of the family it seems more than proba- ble that the same species has, under the influence of changing climate, run into varieties of sufficient per- manence to lead to their being considered so many distinct species. Linneus described 5 species, the accom- panying being one of them, which therefore must have found its way from Europe, most likely with grain-seed. But, however it may have come, it is nov thoroughly at home now on the Neilgherries. y 7 ; Yi Via LA. ia . tysirmachia(b) Leschenaullii/ Duty) ¥ wd Sragaliided wf WA PUDUMAMLELY \ Wie = : Aragalles labipeliw/ Sin) NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 99 ANAGALLIS Pi a (Linn) roots herbace- Duby asks oe this'a genuine species ? The ous : decumben branches elongated, 4 question is not easily answered but so far as my sided, slightly valied: “teaves tr e or ternate sete on scisielinios with A. arvensis enables me d emiamplexicaul, subacute, spreading: to judge, I confess I feel disposed to answer in the peduncles longer than the leaves : calyx a little shor- nbative e, thou a on ‘ae Sieg > YJ my Neilgherry ter than the corolla, lobes narrow page ing eee specimens wit. ean ones of A. arvensis there acuminate : corolla nearly twice as long a sta- does appear Soa “di erence, “This more nearly ap- mens, sted obovate obtuse, finely se prtake: Sane proaches the variety 4. c@rulea, i anrogest a R not hairy: capsule about the length of the calyx. D. C. that very plant, of which however I have not a good rod. specimen to compare. The Indian plant is ocak more eilgherries, in corn fields and other cultivated luxuriant than the European, lands: flowers blue MYRSINEACE. As already stated under Primulacez this order is but a section of that, in so far as orders rest on the structure of the organs of fructification ; Myrsineacee having, like Primu- lacee, an inferior calyx and corolla, the stamens attached to the middle of the lobes, not alternate with them, and a free central Placenta covered with ovules. In habit they differ widely, Primulacee being generally herbaceous with capsular fruit, Myrsineacee shrubby or arboreous with drupaceous fruit. In this family, as in several others, we meet with two of those departures from the usual structure which are ever crossing the path of the systematist, to the material disturbance and derangement of his arrangements, as if to keep constantly reminding him, that nature will not submit to the trammels of human systems but will have her own way in forming family ties and relationships between families apparently widely separated. The character of this order is to have the ovary free with numerous ovules and the mature fruit, through the abortion of all the ovules but one, with asingle full grown seed. In JMesathe ovary is inferior, that is, enclosed within the tube of the calyx and the berry contains many seed: and in Embelia and Samara the corolla is polypetalous, or in other words the petals of whichit is composed have departed from the character of the family by remaining uncombined. The inferior fruit of Mesa places that genus in more or less intimate connexion with a whole group of orders having epigynous flowers while it is still retained among its more immediate relations by the position of its stamens opposite the lobes of the corolla and by its free central placenta. The polypetalous flowers of mbelia and Samara again bring them into connection with another set of families having polypetalous flowers, but here again the stronger ties of stamen bearing petals and free central placenta overcome the weaker ones of non-cohering petals and retain it among the Primulaceous group. Looking back to the remarks made under Vacciniacee which Dr. Lindley has removed from the Epigynous to the Hypogynous group we can scarcely help feeling sur- prised that this section is passed unnoticed by him though open to the same objections. This family which now includes about 320 species was all but unknown to Lin- neus, two species only being described by him namely Samara leta and Myrsine Afri- cana. Of the credit of having detected and well defined the former of these genera he had very nearly been deprived, though nothing can be more precise than his character. The circumstance of course does not originate in any wish to depriye him of the merit I 30 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. which is his due, but arose from the circumstance of his having loosely quoted a figure which he thought belonged to the species which he was describing from specimens in hand, but which in truth belonged to a totally different plant, as has since been discovered, and because he quoted the plant figured, under a wrong name, it has been assumed that it was his plant (though totally different) and his genus altogether suppressed and a new one set up in its place. Dr. Arnott when recently in London and having an opportunity of examining Linneus’ original specimen, was enabled to trace the history of the error through its whole course and restore the Linnean Samara to its place in the Botanical system, but to the exclusion of Alph. D. C.’s Choripetalum which is in fact identical with the older genus. This family is widely but very unequally distributed, apparently, preferring those countries enjoying a rather high but equable temperature. They most abound in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, next to which ranks Bengal, Burmab, and the Tenas- seram Coast. The Indian Peninsula and Ceylon are placed low in the scale, whether owing to these possessing fewer in proportion, or to their being less known, I am unable to say, but I do know that I have nearly twice as many in my own collection as D. C. assign- ed to both countries in 1833, when his very excellent paper was read to the Linnean Society. MASA. Calyx bibractiolate, 5-lobed, estivation quincuncial, 2 exterior, 3 interior. Coralla 5-cleft subcam panulate, lobes obtuse; in estivasion one lobe exterior another interior, the three middle ones imbricately convolute on the margins, all obtuse inflexed on the margin. Stamens 5, free, incluse, filaments filiform. Anthus ovoid sperical, cordate, shorter than the filaments. Pollen (dry) ellipsoid. Ovary adnate to the calyx sometimes half superior in the flower, the placenta at the base within the tube of the calyx. Style short. Stig- ma capitate often obsolately 3-4-5-lobed : sometimes the lobes 5, distinct, opposite the lobes of the calyx. Berry covered by the calyx, ovoid. Ovules numerous immersed in depressions of the central placenta. Seeds numerous, turbinate, angled, flattened above. Embryo cylindrical, the commissure of the colyledous towards the hilum.—Shrubs or trees of Asia or Africa usually hermaphrodite : leaves alternate sometimes pellucido- punctuate : racemes axillary or terminal simple or compound at the base : flowers small white : bracts at the hase of the pedicels persistent minute narrower than the bractiols: bractiols addressed to the flower. The essential character of this genus is simply; Corolla superior 5-lobed. Stamens 5 opposite the lobes of the corolla. Ovary 1-celled with numerous ovules attached to a free central placenta. Fruit baccate many seeded The genus was published in 1775, under the name here given and again in 1776, under that of Beobotris and, for a long time, both were retained, until at length it was ascertained they were the same, when of course the older of the two took precedence. This will explain the cause of its appearing in Roxburgh’s Flora Indica under the latter, he not being aware of the other belonging to the same plants. It now includes about 30 species, 24 of which are natives of India, the Eastern Islands and China, the rest are of African origin. The admitted species seem to me to run so much into each other, that I greatly doubt whether a more extend- ed and intimate acquaintance will not tend to reduce the number, some of them appearing to be varieties taken up from imperfect specimens, of other species. Indeed I can scarcely help thinking that varieties of the species here given form the basis of several of those defined by Alph. D. C. but of that I cannot feel certain without authentic specimens to compare with it. LMCMCML’ A 4 2 MEAS EF " f, nf Chi MY le oie Sh ob Oo > S, Spee Mg I> Govinder: ah YD, V4 W/ /, Y Py eS Uy y, (Sn ff . Masa cel Govtnder WMV A 4A) Au ra wy NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 81 Masa Inpica (Alph. D. C.) : leaves ovato- the Hastern slopes of the Neilgherries rather frequent. lliptic acuminate, coarsely dentate, Boeke en Between this and Perrotettiana I can discover no can ie on the margin : racemes axiliary and ter- satisfactory difference. This may indeed be that plant nal, simple or ramous at the base, glabrous, twice as it grew on the Neilgherries, but I have numerous i hich the ietath of ty petiole : bracts lanceolate acuminate, nite. Cred from other localities which seem all, with — than the pedicel, br. “agai ovate acute : lobes t slight variations, to correspond with it. ve the calyx ovate subciliate : corolla 5 cleft, 3 times thet adopted the older name though I suspect the size of the calyx, lobes Bharat subciliate spread- the newer _— have been safely given. The genus ing : ae, semisuperior stigma capitate sublobate— ee ed Pte very difficult one, different specimens appearance but dei affording specific ‘Alpine Sales in various parts of the peninsula, on as vie distinctio EMBELIA. Calyx 5-parted or deeply cleft. Petals 5-reflexed quincuncial in estivation, 2 exterior and 3 interior. Stamens 5, filaments united with the base of the opposite petal. Anthers ovoid emarginate at the base and sometimes ‘at the apex, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Pollen (dry) ovoid furrowed. Ovary ovoid often most minute. Style short : stigma incluse, capitate, sublobate. Ovula 4-1, often abortive, inserted on a central placenta, often most minute. Drupa globose. Seed solitary not filling the cavity of the pericarp. Scandent trees or shrubs: leaves alternate usually entire, petiols often marginate or denticulate. Flowers race- mosely panicled or racemose or rarely subeapetate : Flowers small, occasionally, by abortion of the pollen or ovules, sub-dioicous : petals approximated at the base spreading or reflexed. Of this genus there are 25 species, more or less perfectly known, natives of India, the Eastern Islands and the Madagascar group. It may be said to have been unknown to Linnzus, for, although he saw and part- ly described one species, he never characterized and named it as the type of a genus. That species is found in Ceylon and also in the Tenasserim Provinces, one very like it is abundant about Coonoor, so like indeed that for a long time I considered the two identical, which however is not the case. The habit of the accompanying species is so unlike that of all the others I have seen, that it seems not impossible more intimate acquaintance may lead to its removal from the genus, though that does not seem probable. In the mean time it may be viewed as a very distinct and well marked species quite different from all the other Indian ones. GARDNERIAN oun e shrub, remarkable in the genus for 30 when dry, form qui EMBEL (R. W.) : young A diffus branches a petioles ferrugenco-hinate leaves ovate, venation of ‘the leaves which, ‘ I ; rounded a t the bas sae ype regen d, oria aceous, a net work of white lines. In habit it associates ith eep i ga glabrous corolla: petals obovate obtuse longer than mens Thro’ an oversight of the draftsman the bran- the stamens, sprinkled with purplish coloured spots. ches are — glabrous in place of clothed with i hairs Sisparh on me western a as of the Ne gherries and short Ruary . © SAMARA Linn. (Choripetalum Alph. D.C) Calyx 4-cleft lobes acute. Petals 4-spreading or reflexed afterwards separately deciduous ; xstivation valvate (in S. auranteacum, imbricate, according to Wallich, in S. undulatum) stamens 4-adnate to the base of the petals. Anthers 2-celled lanceolate ovoid cordate at the base. Pollen (in 8. aurantiacum) very minute, spherical marked with lines on the surface. Ovary ovoid conical often depressed and abortive. Style short, stigma capitate subinfundibuliform rugous or subbilobate. Placenta globose, ovules few immersed over the upper part of the placenta. Seed indusiate, globose concave at the base. Scandent shrubs, branches glabrous diffuse ; leaves glabrous punctuate petioled : racemes axillary slender simple. Habit of Embelia. The above with one or two slight alterations is taken, from D. C.’s Prodromus, being his character of P 89 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Choripetalum. The following character of Samara I take from Linneus’ genera Plantarum which will, I think, bear me out in adopting Dr. Arnott’s opinion as to the identity of the two genera. Calyx minute 4-parted acute persistent. Corolla 4-petals ovate sessile with a longitudinal furrow at the base. Stamens 4, filaments long subulate immersed in the furrow. Anthers subcordate. Pistil. Germen ovate half the length of the coralla, ending in a cylindrical style. Stigma funnel shaped. Pericarp a round drupe. Seed solitary. “His essential character is—Calyx 4-parted, Corolla 4-petaled, Stamens immersed in the base of the petals, Stigma infundibuliform. Both these embrace all the essentials of a precise Botanical gene- rie character as perfectly as all those embodied in Alph. DeCandolle’s more extended one, and prove clearly enough that he truly had a genuine species before him, when he constructed his character of the genus and not Memecylon as D. C.’s remark under Myrsine Jeta would lead us to suppose. Our plant must therefore revert to the older generic name since it perfectly agrees with the Linnean character so far as it goes ; and, perhaps, along with it, two species described by Roxburgh under the name of Samara, one from the Circars the other from the Moluccas, which D. C. does not seem to have taken up, as I cannot find any notice of them in any of his Monagraphs, of the order. The genus is asmall one, but will probably be found more extensive than is now surmised, as there is room to suspect that one, at least, and probably more, may be found referred to the genus Myrsine which it, in some respects, resembles, being principally distinguished by its quaternary not quinary flowers, the flowers in Myrsine being occasionally so deeply parted as to become almost polypetalous. I think I have observed in this, as well as in Embelia, that when they flower at irregular seasons nearly all the flowers are imperfect and sterile, while at other seasons, nearly every flower (judging from the quantities of fruit produced) seems fertile. The polygamous tendency therefore adverted to by DeCandolle in both characters is, perhaps, not owing to some plants being uniformly sterile and others fertile, as the same plants seem to me to be both at different times. My opportunities however, for close observation have not been such as to enable me to assure myself of the existence of this curious anomaly, still less to assure myself of the seasons at which they respectively occur. The same thing, it strikes me, also occurs in both the species of Iliz found at Ootacamund. _ The spe- cimen of Samara, here represented, seems either taken from a male plant or to have been gathered during the sterile season, which I think is the cold one immediately after the rains, as all the flowers seem deficient in the ovary, those that flower in spring are I think fertile. They flower at both seasons. SAMARA AURANTIACA (R W. Choripetalum auran- — Neilgherries also Malabar, flowering during the dry ~ p : season. When in ower the branches are quite at both ends, entire, coriaceous, long petioled : racemes covered with the numerous racemes of bright orange —— shorter than the leaves, lon er than the petiols, coloured flowers. The leaves vary considerably in gor te Sangean as long as the pe Is : petals linear size, being from three to six inches long by from 14 to aut baer — = —— pa de orn ay petals, 2 broad, usually ending in a blunt acumen. MYRSINE. Flowers polygamo-dioicous quaternary or quinary. Calyx 4-5-cleft. Corolla 4-5-parted. Stamens free, filaments inserted into the base of the corolla. Anthers 2-celled erect lanceolate glanduloso-acute, dehiscing Jongitudinally. Pollen (dry) sperical. Ovary globose, style cylindrical, stigma capitate papillose, irregularly lobed or fimbriated. Placenta sperical depressed at the apex. Ovules 4 or 5 peltate, amphitropous. Drupe pets ace putanicnt rabeaniee tary Seed solitary.—Shrubs or trees, with alternate coriaceous leaves ; axillary ascicled flowers ; imbricating caducous bracts : flowers often 4 or 5 androus, in the same plant, small: male ones larger: stigma in the female flowers sometimes large, coloured. This is a large genus of which Alph. D. C. enumerates 75, more or less perfectly known, species. pene ne of these, satlicienaly well described to be considered known, are about equally divided between the and new worlds, 31 belonging to the latter. They are mostly of tropical origin but in India, so far as I am aware, seek the cooler tlimates of Alpine regions, Mydineicti! A, fA A 4 an fiaks~/ ( WMELLEE, EE a Pg iy ¥ oe, ee Bye Jj 4 @ | e : Ah, VA = Vifh Gj th) | a A /. MMA f ASh si (AAAS L 7 FOAM OAS EU Uf ere Ge fy ( > hh cS ~(p ce Ry Sy? _ ib PAE mf L7 +/ "4 ULC fi ff Miylhinenlen!’ Mabe 3 x \, é NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 33 A. DeCandolle seems to have experienced considerable difficulty in finding natural sections into which to group allied species and suggests that, perhaps, the estivation of the calyx and corolla might be taken for that purpose. So far as I can make out, I should doubt their yielding good characters, the amount of varia- tion being so small that I confess I should feel almost disposed to put all mine down as valvate the accompany- ing among the rest, though its estivation is certainly imbricate, the very edges only of the petals being over lapping. The genus, so far at least as the Indian species are concerned, is very unassuming in its aspect and is therefore very little known except to Botanists. MYRSINE seis omc le Sade i‘ — bs ico B grandifora, leaves smaller, lobes of the obovate ‘ead oriaceous, ing rolla 4 times longer than the teeth of calyx, N sii: into the pet iol : “fasci cles Seah 58 dgwaes ries, D. C. bractiate: bracts imbricated, ovate: flowers short pe- Ootacamund, frequent in clumps of jungle, cap dicelled; teeth of the calyx eh iobae, of the corol- .ing February and March, ied the nake © ba la tanibeclate acute, two or three times niacin air = below the leaves, are quite covered with its demon se: be ceeding the stamens.—D. C. Prod. — weg of flowers, an sagen og the L 4-6 inches lo ong: acute or obtuse everywhere artist t been successful in repre The souaatiats, efits ofthe margin longer—flowers poly- raat i zo fe it tier da a better idea of its gith tee a gamous, the fascicles, owing to the imbricating bracts, in that s ; ul. resembling small cones. Ne epau ARDISIA. Calyx 5 parted. Corolla 5 parted or 5 cleft, the lobes spreading or reflexed ; westivation of both tending towards the left. Stamens 5 inserted into the base of the tube of the corolla: filaments free, usually short: an- thers free erect, emarginate or bifid at the base; often triangular, acuminate: cells dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary rounded 1 celled: style filiform subulate at the apex; placenta central spherical: ovules numerous, 6-12, peltate. Drupe globose, externally fleshy, usually glabrous, coriaceous, hard within, seed one. Trees shrubs or undershrubs : leaves alternate, rarely opposite or ternate, punctuate, entire or serrated : flowers pani- cled or rarely racemose, peduncles terminal or axillary, pedicels usually umbellulate at the points of the pedun- cles : corolla white or rose coloured, often punctuate, drupes usually purple. This is an extensive genus, 91 sufficiently known species being enumerated in D. C.’s Prodromus, exclusive of 20 regarding which some tncertainty prevails. rig is generally tropical in its habits and is nearly equally di- vided between India and tropical America the p in th ber of species, leaning towards Asia. The accompanying is the only species I have met with on the Hills, and it does not ascend above 5000 or 5,500 feet, showing how little this family is disposed to encounter the cold of the more elevated Alpine regions, while at the same time they are peculiarly attached to subalpine stations. I have several from the Hills about Cour- tallum and Ceylon in both of which stations they enjoy an equable and moist climate. Many of them are ex- ceedingly handsome shrubs, the one here figured not the least favoured in that respect. It prefers shady jungles in moist soil near streams. ARDISIA HUMILIS. (Vahl.) leaves obovate lan- renee ee: ere is a aay to be confounded with we obtuse, subentire, coriaceous contracted at any other spec Its showy rose or rather light pur- the base into the petiol: racemes umbelliform axillary plish flo flowers intl ize fruit and large bright shin- and terminal reflexed, shorter than the leaves: lobes ing leaves makes it a most chaos shrub. In fa- of the calyx orbiculate, subciliate : lobes of the corolla vourable situations it bec — ~ oo lanceolate, Sea twice the length of the calyx.— from bine: the specimens repres ente iol D. C. Prod. 8129, nearly 20 feet high. It is eae distributed and capil ren and has received seve Eastern slopes of the Neilgherries, subalpine jun- 4. Solanacia, hittoralis, Doma, olerace, sovsbaliate;, ge. lca in a pal near the banks of streams, flowering am uncertain to = ch of D. C.’s varieties this This is a beautiful and somewhat longs but think his las ILICIN E—Howty-rrie. This small order was formerly considered a tribe of Celastrinew, and as such it occupies a place in DeCandolle’s Prodromus. Brogniart, an eminent French Botanist, pro- kK 34 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. posed in 1826 to remove it and constitute the Holly-tribe a distinct order. Those who recollect the Holly-tree of Europe with its bright prickly leaves will scarcely suppose that the two here represented are species of the same genus, but yet, when the flowers and frait are compared, and it is from them generic characters are principally derived, no difference is found except in the number of carpels, and that is not constant as may be seen by compar- ing figures 5 and 7 of the accompanying plate where one has 5 the other 6 carpels. In the European Lolly, 4 is the usual number, so that the Indian forms (Prinos) can at best be only viewed as a section of the same genus, a view which is further confirmed by the fact, that the original Prinos, is described as having six lobed corollas, six stamens and six car- pels; here we have them 5 lobed and 5 stamens, though it is not improbable six may occa- sionally be found. But the mere circumstance ofsuch irregularity existing shows that charac- ters taken from such variable organs are not to be depended upon, and, in the instance of this genus their value is still further reduced by a Nepaul species which has only two carpels. The species are widely distributed but predominate in the warmer regions, ‘the West Indies, South America, Cape of Good Hope, some in North America and several in India and Ceylon. Three are found on the N eilgherries and three or four on the more elevated regions of Ceylon. In Wallich’s list of Indian plants six species are named exclusive of the Neilgherry ones. In Europe only one species is indigenous, the common Holly. Several species are famed for the possession of active properties, the bark of the com- mon Holly has been successfully employed as a substitute for Peruvian bark in the cure ofin- termittent fever and its berries are purgative and emetic, but perhaps the most celebrated is the Ilix Paraguayenses which yields the far famed Paraguay tea or Mate, of which a very full account bas been published by Sir W. J. Hooker, in the London Botanical Journal. It is there said, “ itis certainly aperient and diuretic, but its other qualities are more problemati- cal, though, to individuals who accustom themselves to it, the habit becomes second nature and to break it off, or even to diminish the customary quantity, seems almost impossible. Like opium it certainly seems to rouse the torpid and calm the restless, but, as in the case of that noxious drug, the immoderate use of it is apt to occasion diseases similar to those cou- sequent on the practice of drinking strong liquors.” I have quoted this passage with reference to one of the Neilgherry species I. denticulata which nearly accords with the American one in its Botanical characters, and may possibly, like it, when analyzed, be found to contain Theine, the Alkaloid of Tea and Coffee. TLIX—Ho.iy-tTreEe. Calyx inferior kor lobed permanent. Corolla wheel shaped in 4-6 deep elliptical spreading concave obes or as many petals slightly cohering by their broad bases, much larger than the calyx. Filaments awl- shaped shorter than the coralla, and alternate with its lobes. Anthers small two lobed. Ovary roundish. Styles none. Stimas 4-6-obtuse permanent. Berry globular 4-6-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell, oblong P =— angular at the inside rounded externally.—Trees or shrubs with alternate petioled, polished, sometimes >" Govisialoo , tel i he) Fh f / TAD f Wha £ CA: va ty / a NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 85 prickly coriaceous leaves: axillary many flowered peduncles : flowers bisexual or imperfect and polygamous by the abortion of one of the sexes. With reference to this last peculiarity it may be mentioned that the specimen figured of J. Wigh- éiana has perfect bisexual flowers that of J. Gardneriana has them imperfect, the male organization only being developed. The latter was gathered in February and at the same season I examined many flowers of the other similarly imperfect on trees having fruit on them, whence I infer that the season at which the flower expands exerts some influence on their fertility. Inrx (P.) Wieutrana. (Wall.) : glabrous, leaves ending ina tapering acumen: umbels axillary or aggre- ovato-elliptic or elliptic acuminate entire, ¢ naked branches : pedicels often shorter riaceous: umbels numerous axillary or from the scars than the peduncles, sparingly hairy : calyx and corolla of fallen leaves, pedicels about the length of the pe- 5 lobed, the former curulbiea with short heirs. duneles, often longer: flowers often polygamous by —_In clumps of jungle near Sispara on the Western i 5-6-cleft, berry 5-6-seeded. slopes of the Neilgherries, flowering in profusion in Neilgherries—frequent : to be met with in flower at February. nearly all seasons, but in greatest perfection in all A small tree or large shrub, and at the time we February and : g 7 a A large umbrageous tree everywhere glabrous, It was not then in fruit, indeed most of the flowers leaves from an inch and half to two inches long, cori- seem males. It seems very nearly allied to the preced- aceous, shining above paler and dull beneath, usually ing but differs in habit, in its much larger, more mem- ending in a short abrupt acumen. Flowers very nu- branous, and Jong acuminate leaves, and also in larger merous, small, white; at certain seasons nearly all and more conspi s flowers. At first I felt disposed males, at others generally bisexual. Berries about the to consider this a variety of I. Wightiana, viewing the size of a pea, red when ripe.—I measured one tree 18 larger size of the leaves and flowers as nding o feet in circumference at about 6 feet from the ground. the plants, being younger and more luxuriant, an error LIX GARDNERIANA. ‘ ) = subarboreous which Mr. Gardner first pointed out, I therefore de- glabrous : leaves ovate lanceolate or subcordate, dicate the species to him. . SAPOTACE. This order is so tropical in its habits, that I am not aware of more than three spe- cies being found on the Hills, out of about 230 which it contains. On the plains they are more numerous, but so far as regards the number of species they are far from numerous in India, probably about 30 composing the whole. In the Madagascar Islands including the Mauritius and Bourbon, they seem to exceed that number, several are from the Eastern Islands, a few from China, New Holland and the Cape, but the bulk of the order are na- tives of America and the West India Islands. In its affinities this order seems nearly relat- ed to both the preceding, but is still amply distinct, so much so, that Lindley places all three in different alliances, esteeming Sapotacee more nearly allied to Rhamneous plants, Ih- _ einee to Gentianeous ones and Myrsinee to a third set vary different from both, consisting of Plumbago, Plantago and Primula. The affinities which led to the adoption of the two first of these seem to me overstrained, while those which connect Sapolacee and Ilicinee, which appear stronger than the other, are altogether broken down. Between Myrsineacee Pri- mulacee and Plumbaginee the connecting links are strong, much more so, it appears to me, those between Myrsineacee and Sapotacee : while, as I understand them, the relationship between Sapotaceee Ilicinee and Ebinacee is most close and intimate: structure habit and geographical distribution all combining to give strength to the alliance. Styracee (the next order) which most Botanists look upon as 80 closely unitéd with Eéinacee that Endlicher has even arranged them under that order as “ allied Ebenacee,” Lindley has placed next Sapotacee in his Rhamnal Alliance. In this distribution it seems to me he 36 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. has not been quite so fortunate as in the case of Myrsineacee except in so far as Sapotacee is concerned ; the relationship being apparently not less intimate eae Sapotacea and Styracacee than between Sapotacee and Ebinacee while the relationship existing between Styracacee and the Rhamnal alliance through Celastracee, seems barely made out in some points and is altogether wanting in others of equal or even greater importance, whence there is reason to infer, Dr. Lindley’s arrangement will not be adopted. This order furnishes some very useful products the Gutta Percha the most valu- able. The Sappodilla plum, a delicious fruit much resembling in taste a rich Jargonelle pear, belongs to this family. The Indian Eloopee’s ( Bassia) are variously employed, the stems, flowers and seed being all applied to some useful purpose, The stem as timber, the flowers as food and the basis whence a spirit is obtained by distillation, and the oil both for burning and as a substitute for ghee. The fruit of two species of Mimusops are eat by the natives, but not much admired and that of the Sapota here figured is pickled by the natives on the Hills. It much resembles in taste and appearance a small crab and is not likely to find many admirers unless it can be improved by cultivation and become like that of the Sapota Acras or Sappodilla plumb. SAPOTA—SAPPODILLA. Sepals 5-6 obtuse imbricated. Corolla tubuloso-campanulate 5-6 lobed : with as many epepetalous scales (sterile stamens) inserted on the tube alternate with its lobes. Stamens 5-6 opposite the lobes of the corolla below the scales: anthers extrose 2-celled dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary ovoid hairy 5-12 celled. Style cylindrical glabrous. Stigma undivided obtuse. Ovules solitary in the cells ascending anatro- pus. Berry by abortion few or one seeded, seed nutlike compressed elongated ; the inner angle sulcated. Testa shining. Albumen fleshy. Embryo central, radical inferior, cotyledons foliacious.— Milky trees, bran- ches sometimes spinous : leaves alternate entire coriaceous : flowers axillary ; berry apple-like, often large, fleshy, eatable when ripe. This genus contains 12 species 3 of them Indian : three from Brazil two Australian one Mauritius one Philippine Islands one Guinea and one uncertain but all tropical except perhaps the last. 1218. Sapota Extncorprs, (Al.D.C.) : branches A large tree with rough cracked bark, hence muclr often spinous, ramuli ferrugenio-tomentose : leaves covered with both parasitic and epiphytic plants of all acute at both ends, glabrescent, entire : flowers axilla- kinds. e flowers except from their number are not ry, few : pedicels the length of the petiol and like the conspicuous, and have no beauty. it i the size of a crab, and not unlike one agreeing more- er: over in the sour austere taste of that fruit. It is made the length of the stamens, the back and the margins ous : flo P ose.—D. cL. Prod. 8—176. extrorse: ovary hairy, 5 celled, with a single ascending Neilgherries, in almost every wood about Ootaca- ovule in each, three or four o which usually abort mund, in flower and fruit at all seasons. before the fruit attains maturity. ISONANDRA. Calyx 4 parted, the two exterior lobes large. Corolla 4 cleft or 4 parted, lobes in zestivation, twisted to the left no scales. Stamens 8 in a single series all equal cohering at the base with the tube of the corolla. Anthers Maetate, erect, 2 celled, extrorse, dehiscing longitudinally ; 4 larger opposite the lobes of the corolla, Ovary free, hisped, 4 celled (five, by a mistake of the artist, in the plate) ovules 4 ascending. Style exserted, glabrous Berry fleshy, one seeded by abortion, seed obovoid erect, testa cartilagenous, albumen copious, cotyledous foli- PS iad, f ST AfHACHE vA SH [L2 SifsMie nj HO DE, tA WP NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 37 aceous longer than the radicle. Trees with alternate entire leaves : flowers axillary, aggregated ; petiols short or wanting. The stamens of this genus being all perfect, and these opposite the petals more developed than those alternate, show clearly that the scales found in their place in other genera, are indeed abortive stamens, The dissections of this plate are not good, the relative sizes of parts not being properly preserved—the fila- ments are much too long—and the ovary is represented with five, in place of four cells, an error which escaped me when sending the original drawing to the Lithographer, and which I could not prevent at the time of making, as I was absent when the drawing was made. This is a small genus all the published species, except one, being peninsular plants. Six have been published, and my collection contains two more, one of them from Ceylon. Two species are found on the Neilgherries, one in the woods between Pycarrah and Nediwuttum, and about the Avalanche, the othernearly half way down the Sisparah pass. In regard to properties, nothing, so far as Tam aware, is yet known, beyond the single fact that it has recently been ascertained that the famous Gutta Percha is the produce of a species of this genus. 1219. IsonanpRa PerrotreTiAna (Al. D. C.) Arboreous, the remuli clothed with rusty coloured leaves elliptic narrowing at both ends, apex obtuse, silky hairs, leaves from 3 to 4 inches long, shining base acute, glabrous above, slightly pilose beneath: above, dull or silky beneath, flowers small, sessile, lowers sessile, lobes of the caly ovato rotundate, silky; i ches, ; corolla deeply 4 cleft.---D. C. Prod. 8—188. Neilgherries, in jungles, about Sisparah and the Avalanche, flowering February and March. STYRACACEA—Srorax-Trise. This is a small order as regards genera, but not so as regards species, there being upwards of 120 distributed among six genera. It is rare that Botanists have to complain of there being too few genera for the species of an order, but on the present occasion, it would appear such is the case, the genus Symplocos, apparently including two if not three good genera. Linnaeus was acquainted with five species, which he made the types of 4 genera. Three of these are still retained, the fourth, Hopea, which, if kept up, would have received the four accompanying species, and many other Indian ones, was long ago reduced and united with Symplocos, from which, judging from a species I possess (See Icones, No. 1237) properly referable to it, they seem generically distinct, it having long tubular flowers and many series of stamens all united at the base into a tube, in place of, as in ours, having the Corolla cleft nearly to the base, and the filaments free throughout. That obstacle to their union, is partly removed by grouping all the species in which it occurs into distinct sections of the combined genus, a proceeding which would have been unnecessary, had both the origi- nal Linnean genera been allowed to remain. In that case, as already remarked, the whole section would have been referable to his genus Lfopea, which would then have had the con- venience of structural distinction as well as geographical distribution in its favour : all the Indian species, with the solitary exception above noted, belonging to it, while the tee Lin- hean Symploci appertain to the American Flora. A solitary Hopea, claims America as 1ts native country, in like manner as a solitary Symplocos claims India for its place of abode. The relationship between this order and Ebenacee is certainly very close, so close indeed that I doubt, whether technical characters can be found to separate them, though _ parently distinct in nature. The character on which most reliance is placed, is the relative position of the ovary and flower, Hypogynous in Ebenacee, Perigynous in Styracatee, but I think Mr. Bentham has shown, most satisfactorily, that in this instance these cannot calry much weight. : 38 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. The genus Symplocos, § Hopea, abounds in the Alpine and Subalpine forests of India ; nearly 40 species being already known, but I do not recollett having once met with a species on the plains. One Symplocos, § Cyponema, I found on the Pulney moun. tains, and also in Ceylon, but have not yet found it on the Neilgherries. It is an inter- esting species in connection with the Geography of that section of the genus which is other- wise exclusively extra Asiatic. Of the genus Styrax, which gives the name to the order and includes nearly 50 species, four or five only are natives of India, As regards economical relations little need here be said, only one of the Indian ones so far as I am aware, being applied to any useful purposes. Some of the species of Symplocos yield a yellow dye, and it is probable most of the Indian ones would yield that colour, as the leaves of nearly all turn yellow in drying. Storax and Benzoin, two fragrant gum resins are obtained from two species of Styraz one anative of Syria, the other of the Malay Islands. While some of the Brazilian species, yield a fragrant secretion of a similar nature which is used in Roman Catholic Churches as frankincense, The Indian species above referred to is Symplocos laurina, (now S. spicata), anative of the Neilgherries, the bark of wiich is celebrated in Bengal, as a mordant for red dyes, but has not, so far as 1 am aware, been similarly employed in the Carnatic, except perhaps as an imported article of commerce. S YMPLOCOS. Calyx 5-cleft, often ciliate. Corolla of 5-8-10-petals, in one or two series scarcely united at the base, but cohering by means of the adnate stamens. Stamens inserted into the extreme base of the corolla 15, or numerous sometimes penta—or poly-adelphous, oftener monadelphous, the tube of the stamens, more or less extensively united to the corolla. Filaments 4iform, or ligulate contracted at the apex. Anthers ovoid, glo- bose 2 celled, ovary inferior or half inferior, 2-4-5-celled, Ovules 2-4 pendulous from the apex of the cells. Style filiform, stigma capitellate, simple or 3 sided. Berry crowned by the calyx, often, by abortion, reduced to one or two cells. Seed solitary in each cell. Albumen copious. Embryo axile. Cotyledous very short. Trees or Shrubs : leaves alternate serrated or crenulate, usually turning yellow when dry : racemes axillary, many flowered, bracteate : flowers, sessile or pedicelled white or red. ; This genus as it comes from the hands of Professor A. De Candolle, is a large one, including 60 spe- cies.—His very extended character makes it a complex and difficult one, especially as regards the character of the flower assigned to it, viz. a “ Corolla searcely cohering at the base,” while the characters of his two first sections commence, “ Corolla basi tubulosa” and these comprise 27, out of his 57 sufficiently known species. If the genus as it now stands, is, as he believes, truly a natural one, he might, I think, easily have avoided so great an anomaly as that in his generic character. The section Hopea, the only one we have to deal with here, has the “* Corolla 5-parted spreading, stamina cohering at the very bottom, sometimes pentadelphous ; filaments slen- der, ovary 3-celled, stigma capitate trigonous.” This character brings together a very natural group of spe- mane, and if separated from the rest, would form, of itself, a very natural genus, susceptible of further subdivi- sion towards facilitating the discrimination of its species. My acquaintance with the other sections of the genus, is too limited to admit of my offering any remark on them. : As remarked above, the tubular flowered species, are principally confined to America, while those with deeply parted corollas, or even polypetalous flowers, are principally of Asiatic origin, Some of the latter 3 2 * 4 ~ ON, oe x_A vA —_—Z= ral Eas aren aa yy 'g norm a Drone ~ a e BS ~ ‘ e \ & . ~*~ ~ . >) AS ~.) ~Oo ‘ ~ SN Ry “Ss O Sey, lace! | DT EYMMACAEL’ LL ff De SN eS em : Ki P ee. B "\ en Lith. (7 WA d tif Vey ww plc’ VU MACL Sy Cee Shycacen Wis ss 2 7 fp 4 ‘ Seypnfoleced LEE cuophiyllar is he Mb) t 4 h/, VE by liapef ¢ Wi ye may appear as at present limited, it is remarkable that NEILGHERRY PLANTS, 39 are objects of considerable beauty, as regards flowers, and as ornamental shrubs are really very handsome well deserving a place in every shrubbery. They are rich looking bushy plants, abounding in bright green foliage and flower freely in their seasons : §. pulchra, departs from the usual character of the genus, in its diffuse rambling habit, but is truly most beautiful. It grows near streams, below Sisparah. The figure gives no idea of the beauty of the flowers, as seen on the growing plant. SS. Gardneriana, is a pretty tree with a fine spreading head which, during the flowering season, (February,) appears almost a mass of flower. It occurs in the small woods between Pycarrah and Nediwuttum. S. microphylla, forms a very pretty ramous shrub, about 6 or 8 feet high, also flowering in February, Mr. Gardner and I found it near the tops of the Hills behind the Avalanche Bungalow, on the banks of streams. S§. obéusa, is not unfrequent in the woods or Shollahs about Ootacamund. The specimen figured was taken from a tree growing in one of those Shollahs behind Kelso Cottage. It is truly a beautiful tree, when in full flower, being covered from the base with ascending branches, loaded with its numerous short racemes of pure white flowers. SYMPLOCOS PULCHR (R. W.) shrubby, ramous glabrous : leaves elliptic, obtuse, serrated, use: ramuli, leaves, Sauiiéles and bracts clothed coriaceous, glabrous, or with a few hairs on the costa with long Ashowaiah hair: leaves peda oblong acumi- beneath : racemes 3 axillar ry about twice the len of nate, slightly cordate, setosely serrated : peduncles the petiols, pilose : bracts ovate, obtuse, and like the axillary filiform, wit flowered (i ty ao lobes cili- calyx pubescent, lobes of 4 calyx arr gegs, cili- ate, corolla glabrous, ovary pubescent, 3 celled. ate, corolla scarcely longer than the s Sispara on the We ices slopes ar ‘the a Sry Neilgherries, high on Bibs: hills behind t is derail on the dais of streams, rite ic Se in Febr Bungalow on the banks of small streams, flowering in _ A beautiful species, the sno white flowers untiek: Februar ary. - Ing hint excellent effect with t wit brownish tawny co- A Hei ramous bush 5 or 6 feet high, and when Joured under surface of the lea found was co re yr its numerous fragrant, white flo 14 inch lon 0 tome tg nae Arboreous, ramuli 10 tines —— slightly -tatoueleiens Fruit I have ferrugenio - tom : leaves petioled, elliptic acu- not minate, oa glabro us above, tomentose on the costa beneath, pubescent on the eniea; veined, SYMPLOCOS OBTUSA. (Wall.) leaves ts te be obo- (4th series so po visible under the sew : racem bo g towar an < =) co ° { ' ° <5 28 Se ° a =) Le] 5) g oO [mal $9 am] is) d te t=] of ca n woo neat PCousan abil and P rearrah, on lines broad, veins prominent beneath, no cote f the Neilgherries, flowering in February. A consider- ones: bracts caducous : tube of the calyx obconical, able tree of great beauty when covered with its nume- — ers ~e lobes of the calyx ciliolate—D. C. rous white flowers and deep green leaves, 255. es Netighéeries, frequent in woods about a ay. SYMPLOCOS MICROPHYLLA (R. W.) fruticose flowering during the dry season, April an OLEACE 4—OLIveE-TRIBE. In this tribe, the Flora of the Hills is rather rich, seven or eight species being found on them, belonging to three or, ¢ according to De C andolle’s view, 4 genera. This order, though as a whole, not a large one, including, however, nearly 150 species, is yet as embracing within its circle, several rather unusual combi- alous flowers, with only two stamens, which is rare : in two sections of the same family, one which is very interesting, Nations ; here we have regular monopelt here we have an apetalous genus in the Ash: and here, i we have the plants of the one distinguished by having pendulous ovules and albumenous seed, while those of the other, have ascending ovules [that is, ovules attached nearer the base than apex,| and exalbumenous seed, Yet in spite of these discrepancies the whole are held together by what seems an indissoluble family tie—the facility of grafting on = other. On this subject, De Candolle forcibly remarks ; however heterogenous the Oleacer the species will all graft upon each 40 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. other, a fact which demonstrates the analogy of their juices and fibres: thus the Lilac will graft upon the Ash the Chionanthus and the Fontanesia and I have even: succeeded in making the Persian Lilac live 10 years, on Pihillyrea latifolia. The Olive will take on the Phiilyrea, and even on the Ash, but we cannot graft the Jasmine on any plant of the Olive tribe, a circumstance which confirms the propriety of separating these two orders.” There certainly can be no doubt or hesitation, in admitting the propriety of their separa- tion, for in truth the only bond of union between the two families consists in both having regular monapetalous diandrous flowers, in all other points they are sufficiently distinct. iuindley even places themin different alliances, considering the Olives more akin to the Solanums and the Jasmines to the Borages and yet, in some essential points, the line of sepa- ration is almost imperceptible. he Jasmines for example, like the last section of Olives, have usually ascending ovules, and exalbumenous seed, some however, have the ovules suspended or actually pendulous ; but on the other hand, their flowers in all points, except the stamens and carpels, show a quinary tendency ; while those of the Olives are as constantly quater- nary: the carpels of the former, as they advance to maturity, have a tendency to separate and produce two berries from one flower, while in the Olive they remain united, producing only one, This tendency to separation is considered characteristic of the Borages, while union is viewed as the constant character of the Solanums, and on these premises, Lindey’s arrangement may rest on a firm foundation, though I confess, I am unable to trace the relationship. The Olive tribe has a wide geographical range, but evidently gives the preference tothe more temperate climates in both hemispheres, while many show a prediliction for the warmth of the tropics ; most, however, of the peninsular species, are found either on the higher ranges of hills, or in the cool shady jungles of the lower ones, very rarely if ever extending to the open plains, Of the European forms, the Ash is that which attains the highest latitude, but the Privets and Lilacs are hardy enovgh to endure the climate of Bri- tain one of them, the common Privet, being a native of England. The true Olive is famed for its oil, and every one knows the fruit as a preserve. Its bark also possesses medicinal properties. Manna is produced from the bark of several species of Ash and the Lilac possesses, in an eminent degree, the febrifugal properties of Peruvian bark. In the arts, the timber of all the larger trees is considered excellent and is in gene- ral use. That of the true Olive is spoken of as indestructible ! OLEA. Calyx shortly tubular, 4 toothed. Corolla hypogynous, shortly campanulate, limb 4-cleft, or 4-parted, 2-celled, with 2 collateral ovules in each, pendulous from the apex of the partition. Style very short, stigma bifid, lacinee entire or emarginate, Drupe baccate, one or two seeded by abortion, putamen bony or fragile papery. Seed inverse, Embryo straight, in the axis of a fleshy or subfarinaceous albumen, and about the same le etl : Coly! ye fy qt p ior, axillary fascicled racemose or panicled flowers. I have here retained the genus as defined by Professor Endlicher, and adopted his character in prefer- ence to that of De Candolle, who constitutes the species here figured, the type of a new genus, on account of trees and shrubs with opposite entire, coriaceous leaves and real f Se rae A\ 13) \\ \ \ Ls K se a \! Sea ee IAT J YD ; fa Sl 7 ; i * he LV esits ORY Se KE e, ps = 4 C — >, Py es e Sis" Vita oe Hew roludha [plald) Vistaniw tludld/D Z/ NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Al its sparingly fleshy fruit, and fragile papery not bony putamen, distinctions which I can scarcely consider of generic value, especially in a genus where we find considerable variation in the texture of the putamen, as well as in the fleshyness of the fruit. If the fruit of the cultivated Olive, is to be taken as the type in that particu- lar, then, it is my impression, nearly all the Indian species may be removed. As the genus stands in De Candolle’s Prodromus, it includes 29 species, but 7 cf these are imperfect- ly known, and may not belong to it, or if they do, may have been previously described under other names. In its geographical range, it is widely distributed— Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America ; all claim, species. The one here figured was formerly described by Roxburgh under the name of Phillyrea. Endlicher reduced that genus, referring the species to Olea : DeCandolle has, however, taken a different view and not only retains both, but constitutes of Roxburgh’s Indian Phillyrea, a new genus under the name of Visiania, which I cannot but view as a needless multiplication of genera in an order where such multiplication does not seem called for, either by the member of its species or by the complex differences of form and habit they present. The Olive tree has long been looked upon with something approaching to veneration, as the emblem of peace and the terrestrial type of ‘durability, the tree itself being one of those that attains the greatest age, and its timber being almost indestructible by the ordinary processes of decay. Every body knows the valua- ble Olive oil and most people are more or less intimately acquainted with the Olive itself as it comes to us preserved in a solution of Salt or Vinegar. I have never heard of any of the Indian species being employed for any purpose except as timber and the wood of some of them is said to be exceedingly close grained and durable. 1249. OLEA RopuSTA. (Wall. Phéllyrea robusta, According to Roxburgh, this tree attains in Silhet Roxb. Visiania robusta D. C.) leaves elliptic, oblong, a large size, and furnishes the natives with a very dur- i able timber. In Southern India, this, so far as I have nicles terminal, large, diffuse ; rachis and pedicels pu- seen is never the case, the thickest stems, and these ry ° i=] - ° ~ = = oo ra) ° f=} zg. ot rs) oe @ 9 ig) fe i ee & ' ous, wood very hard, leaves 3-4 inches long, 1 to J3 eg S e only broad, flowers somewhat fragrant, fruit size ofa bean. Olea in the fruit. He remarks of it— Genus inter ny Dihihi 3: * > 3e 2 a mpc SF 289. S ? aT r not unfrequent, usually small sized, tree in alpine et albumine carnoso, posteriori putamine chartacco jungles in Southern India, the specimens figured were affine.” From this it appears, it only differs from Olea gathered on the Eastern slopes of the Neilgherries, in having a paper-like fragile putamen, while Olea where it is to be met with in flower or fruit at a asa hard bony one, a distinction to which I cannot ge attach generic value. LIGUSTRUM—PRIVET-TREE. Calyx shortly tubular, 4-toothed deciduous. Corolla funnel shaped, tube longer than the calyx, limb 4-parted. Stamens two inserted within the tube of the corolla incluse. Ovary 2, with 2 ovules, pendulous from the apex of the septum, in each. Style very short. Stigma bifid obtuse. Berry er ——s cells 2 seeded or by abortion, 1 seeded. Seeds inverse, ovate or angled, embryo straight, in the axis of a subent- Colyled bfoli vato-lanceolate. Radical terete superior.—Trees or shrubs with tilagenous albumen. Coly] : ; hi opposite short petioled, ovate oblong, or lanceolate entire leaves : flowers, terminal panicles or thyrses white: flesh of the fruit sparing, oily ; hence showing an affinity with the Olive. eing yet known and some of these so very like, that ground of geographical distribution than on This is not an extensive genus, 9 species, only b it seems doubtful whether they are not kept distinct rather on the : ; botanical characters. As a whole it seems very nearly allied to Olea, almost the only appreciable saps being the greater length of the tube of the Corolla in Ligustrum. The flesh of the drupes in both is oily, and the putamen more or less bony. | on account of their compact form'when not ix The Privets are handsome, very ornamental shrubs, a rich cluster of white flowers. The one here M flower, and owing, when in flower, to every branch ending in 49 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. figured, is very nearly allied to the common English Privet, so much so indeed, that, I suspect, if seed were slily sown in England and they were found competent to bear a European winter, they would almost pass for the English one. Curiously enough these pretty shrubs have not yet been methodically introduced inte the hill gardens, though so ornamental and growing so freely in nearly all soils and exposures. LicustruM PeRrotretii(D. C.) branches puberu- broad, of a dark green color, espelly obtuse ‘ both lous at the apex, leaves a obtuse at both ends, or ends, but gm gge ds somewhat ae ramuli numer- sagem eh abrous, succulent, the thyrses terminating ous, short, each terminating in mpact thy de of compound, ¢ ponte —D.C. fragrant white flowers : fruit oval, vine at both ends, Neilgherr ore ce uent: to be met with in nearly about the size of a small bean. all situations, on hilly pastures and banks of rivulets, _D. C. hints that perhaps a Nepalense, is a native and very citform § in its habit in both. of the’ Neilgherries ; I have not met wi th any plant A ramous leafy shrub, aig 2 to 4, or 5 feet high, correspon nding with his cha Readies” ‘ branches softly leaves from 1 to 1} inch long, by about 6 to 8 lines villous,” and “ leaves villous beneath.” LINOCIERA. Calyx minute, 4-cleft. Petals 4 linear, or oblong, elongated, united by pairs at the base, through the medium of the stamens. Stamens two, uniting the base of the petals, incluse. Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled, style very short, stigma emarginately 2-lobed. Drupe baccate, 1-celled by abortion, 1-seeded : putamen, thin sul- cately striated. Seed inverse exalbumenous. Colyledons plano-convex thick, radicle very short, superior. Glabrous shrubs or, rarely, trees with opposite simple entire leaves : peduncles axillary, or terminal racemose or panicled : corolla white yellow or purple. The two preceding species belong to the section Oleinee, having albumenous seed, this belongs to Chionanthee, having them exalbumenous, they differ moreever in the ovules in this being less decidedly pendu- lous, or in other — attached Tt the apex, ite in m3 one ae pL ssi lewa they are even attached below the middle, g, approaching, i f Jasmines, but though, in that particular structure, there js a point of affinity, there are mide fopentent ones keeping them apart. I there- fore quite agree with those who view the two families as distinct. The genus Linociera, is: divided between America and Asia, but preponderating in the latter. From Chionanthus, it seems searcely distinguishable by characters, but we are saved the trouble of distinguishing, all the Chionanthi being from America. Three species described under that name by Roxburgh, have all been removed to Linociera by De Candolle. The accompanying species is very common on the Eastern slopes of the Neilgherries, and may be equally so else- where, a point on which however, I cannot speak with certainty, as I have only recently discovered that it was anew species of this genus, having for a long time supposed it to be Olea Roxburghti, which it much gree 45. LINOCIERA INTERMEDIA (R. W.) lea and then the panicles attain their greatest Tey fertile ai tic, 1 lag at sa ends, long petioled: Piste po are generally shorter than the leaves. Flow- ary, e, about as long as the leaves : flowers ers small: ovules pak i Iam u iecaiate whether ag regated os the poin ite of the Similan ssile, often this last structure is genera ral throughout putt Tribe,’ by abortion: coisas a nding, stigma capitate, 2 butif so, the direction of the ovules afford a mark sed, fruit oval, o which it can, when in fiower, be distingui ied fro Eastern sl lopes af ‘the | Neilgherries frequent, flow the Oleinex : ovules ascending in this, pendulous tae ing during the rainy season.—Arboreous, ph sin the Apex of the cell in that aves sc te feat 6 to 8 hoa long, includin ing o Species seems exactly intermediate between Zn iol, lary, varying much in siz e macrophylla nd ramifiora, but is more nearly relat- one Seeing sherds the tongite of the oem fo - to the former, numerous, white, frequently sterile by aborti JASMINE A—Jasmine-rmez. This small order is pre-eminently Indian, and is found scattered all over the country and in the Southern Provinces, extending from the shore to the tops of the highest Uences e cay = \ = y , Din SOAS ‘ ic 7 ZB ne AS Cane J Sty: ~ > y bX oy, 3 y JZ Zz a \y, Re iy h 4 , a \ iz, AB e VE () Ae x 49 Weacet. aD, Z Ya . L ESE tf / vs f ff fe) 4 FJ / f CEL LIhe VOC aft NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 43 mountains, one being found in the woods about Dodabet, and that so nearly allied to I. aureculatum, a coast plant, that I was for some time inclined to look upon them rather as varieties than distinct species. They both belong to the 3-foliolate division, both have 2 ovules in each cell of the ovary and, almost invariably, one of these cells abort in its pro- gress towards maturity, leaving a single berry, sometimes 2-seeded, in place of a double one, so common inthe genus. Thus agreeing in so many points, it may still be doubted whe- ther my first impressions were not the more correct, in which case we should have a species equally adapted to the plains of India, and toa climate almost European in its temperature. The genus Jasminum, includes nearly one hundred species, exclusive of eight named, but undescribed species. Its station in the vegetable kingdom seems still undetermined. Hitherto it has been considered little more than a section of Oleacee, and, unquestionably, but, for its unsymmetrical flowers, it could scarcely be kept distinct, since, in both families we find erect or at all events ascending and pendulous ovules, and a whole section of the Olives, | with exalbumenous seed ; showing that no weight can be attached to the position of the ovules, those of some Jasmines being descending; nor to their seed being albumenous, as the same structure exists inthe other. But the symmetrical quaternary flowers and valvate eestivation of the one and the unsymmetrical flowers and contorted zstivation of the other, at cnce shows how widely distinct they are in nature. According to my view, they are evidently more nearly related to Apocynacee, than with Oleacee, but according to Lindley, their true affinities belong to neither, but to the Borages a relationship which I confess I cannot so clearly make out. India is certainly the native country of Jasmines, but a few extend to Africa and New Holland, two are natives of Europe and of South America. Their trailing habit fitting them so well for arbours combined with their profusion of beautiful fragrant ftowers, have always secured much consideration, for this beautiful family of plants, The flowers of some of them yield a fragrant essential Oil, and the Orange coloured tube of the Nyctanthes is used as adye. And who in India has not seen the fragrant ornaments for the hair and necklaces formed of their flowers, and considered by native women, on occasi- ons of dress and ceremony, their chief decorations. JASMINUM. Calyx campanulate, 5-8 lobed, teeth sometimes subulate, sometimes short. Corolla salvour shaped ; tube terete, limb flat 5-8 parted, lobes oblique, contorted in estivation. Stamens two adnate to the tube of corollaincluse. Ovary 2 celled 1-2 ovuled: ovules erect, ascending lateral, or sometimes pendulous. Stylesimple, 2 lobed at the apex. Berry didymous, cells 1 or, rarely, 2 seeded. Seed erect exalbumenous.—Erect & scandent shrubs : leaves opposite or rarely alternate, all compound, or occasionally the petiol jointed in the middle, and bearing one leaflet, or sometimes bearing from 3 to 7 leaflets, and then the leaves are 3 foliolate, or unequally pinnate : panicles few or many flowered corolla, yellow or white, sometimes redish externally. The bulk of this character is copied from De Candolle, but to render it applicable to the genus, as Lhave found it in India, it was necessary to introduce a few words regarding the ovary and ovules, In the original 44 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. “ Ovarium bilobum,” is all that is said regarding that important organ, and that little is not in accordance with my experience, the ovary not being two lobed, when the flower drops, though the fruit, owing to a pecu- liarity in its mode of growth, afterwards becomes two lobed. The number and position of the ovules, as here stated, differ from the generally received character. In Endlicher’s Genera Plant, it is said, “ Ovula in loculis solitaria e basi dissepimenti adscendentia anatropa.” This is only partly right as I have found many with 2 ovules in each cell, and one, perhaps accidentally, with three ; some with them positively pendulous, from near the apex of the cell, and several with them lateral, but attached above the middle, so as to be in truth descend- ing not ascending ovules, but few indeed, if any, really erect, that therefore I consider of rare occurrence, as compared with the other structure. Much importance was at one time attached to the position of the ovules in this genus, as compared with those of the Olives, on the supposition that they supplied adequate ground for separating two. groups of plants, which the eye told were not true members of the same family, but which, the reason failed in finding distinctive marks to separate. As an ordinal even as a generic character, it seems to me of no value ; and if employed as a specific one, except in a few extremely well marked cases, would probably often mislead. For these reasons, it must be discarded in practice, and other and more satisfactory ones sought for. The quinary formation and convolute estivatipn of flowers of the Jasmines, as compared with the quaternary structure and valvate estivation of the Olives supply very sufficient distinguishing marks. 1251, JASMINUM ERFCTIFLORUM (Alph. D. C.) corymbose : calyx acute and acutely denticulate, lobes es seortire ovato-lanceolate, subcordate, long, of the coro ve a te on the apex—Flowers s yel- : peduncles nds on the ends of the branches, low, Sg —D. Sicaate ; reith from 5-7 erect pat pede flowers on the r. B tinea: (Alph. D x; 5) ey, sugetces apex : bracts linear, subulate, somewhat longer than hide, narrowing at the base, acute a apex the p Is : lobes o 6, linear gp flowers fe Neilgherries freq aah ub tube of the corolla 3 times longer than t opel ; 2-4 feet high, flowers solitary, or three or four together. lobes 6-7, oblong, acuminate, half the levigth of th Neilgherries, abundantly distributed all over them, tube.—An extensively scandent shrub, extremities of and always to be met with in flower, but in greatest e branches 4 sided, me 3-5 inches long, 15-20 perfection during t ins name J re- are : cymes shorter than — fap de leaves : : bracts am unacquainted with the origina es of th 5 - mn 70 pt Neilgherries, Sandi to an sein of about his name, and bring here asa synonym Wallich’s Z 6000 feet, flowering’ during t the hot se Bignoniaceum, which must be identical with Var. f. is when in full flower is a very bentone wo of Alph. D. C., though referred by his father to a Its large shining dark green leaves and numerous pure different Section, as there is no othe plant having white fragrant flowers, render it a conspicuous object the slightest resemblance to it on the Neilgherries among the dense jungle in which it usually grows D. C. refers here I Chrysanthemum Roxb. bring Don’s Z aureum her ere, though doubtfully, as 1 ag bie thar Mae ah ie et on Pe are he says, the leaves are opposite, which however,I sus- us,) g m Wall. pect is an error, as I have a Nepaul specimen, er rous, not scandent, bes pr oe! hits mat rately according in all ane points with his charac ran Teaflets 3 3, 5,7, ate, or ovate goes but with alternate leaves, acu. : panicles tieatial, "Uppal e the leaves, ¢ Sabminee: 150 Wi i : —— | _ 7 ) Suminun aidan ee Dl NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 45 ASCLEPIADE:. This order, which is one of great extent, and so clearly defined by nature that, except in the case of a few outlying genera, it can scarcely be mistaken, was separated from Jussieu’s order, Apocynee, by Mr. Brown. The few genera known to Jussieu were combined by him with a number of others out of which three other orders, Apocynacee, Loganiacee, and Theophrastee have since been constituted, so that the order, as left by him, included the elements of four orders. Each of these has, within the last few years, been largely augmented, but more especially Asclepiadece and Apocynacee, some of the larger genera of which include nearly as many species as the whole compound order, as known to Jussieu, did. The number of genera appertaining to it, defined by him, amounted to 29 only, and these not all true congeners, Theophrasta, which now forms the type of a new order, being one of them. Lindley, in his Vegetable Kingdom, gives a list of 141 genera of Asclepiadece, and states the number of known species at 910, but which may now be set down at 1,000, or perhaps many more. Of that number, probably about one-fourth are natives of India. Generally speaking, it is tropical in its habits, nearly all its species being either altogether tropical or confined to the warmer regions on either side of that zone; hence, I presume, their paucity on the more elevated regions of these hills. On the lower slopes, ‘where they enjoy a warmer climate, they are more numerous. Within the limits indicated, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, all claim many species as their own, and a few even extend as far north as Europe. In India, they are met with in all situations, equally on the coast and on the tops of the highest mountains; on the banks of marshy rice- fields and arid stony ground; exposed to the full blaze of the sun’s rays, and in the Shady forest. Many of them are large twining shrubs with milky juice, but an exten- sive group, the Stapeliew, is composed of square-stemmed, succulent, herbaceous, leafless plants, with acidulous, watery juices. The shrubby, twining forms are usually furnished with more or less succulent, opposite leaves, but several are leafless, or nearly so. It is however in the reproductive organs of this family that its most marked peculiarity exists, that by which it is distinguished from all the other orders of plants. Like other dichlamydeous plants, the flowers of Asclepiadee have the usual calyx and corolla, the latter varying much in form in different genera, as will be at once seen by comparing Ceropegia with Brachylepis, or with the universally known Calotropis, the old Asclepias gigantea, so very common on the plains. They have also, like other plants, stamens and a pistil, but both differing from the usual form, and presenting a structure peculiar to this tribe. The stamens have, more- over, in the plurality of species, a series of bodies, varying in shape, attached to them designated the staminal crown. These are very conspicuous in Cerepegia elegans, less distinct in the other species. And, lastly, the angles of the stigma are furnished with another series of bodies, designated stigmatic corpuscles. These are generally small, bright shining, brownish-coloured, oblong bodies, easily seen with the naked eye on look- ing closely into the flower. The stamens, unlike those of most other plants have flattened filaments, which adhere by their edges, forming a tube round the ovary and style ee are, apparently, without 46 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. anthers. The anther, in the generality of plants, is the yellow, powdery head, supported on the slender, thread-like filament, but here, on the contrary, it consists of two cavities, hol- lowed out of the apex of the filament, which, in place of containing a quantity of pow- dery pollen, are filled with two yellow, waxy-looking, gland-like bodies, attached, two and two, by slender prolongations to the corpuscles. These masses are the pollen of this order which, in this part of its organization, differs from all other exogenous plants: a similar structure is found to exist in the pollen of Orchidez. The pollen masses, when removed from their cells and placed in favourable circumstances, produce numerous very slender tubes, which, entering the pores of the stigma, pass down into the ovary and there fertilize the ovules which it contains. These tubes can, with moderate skill in the carpels of which it is composed do not cohere jn the axis, but remain distinct, the two apices only coalescing to form one large, usually pentangular, stigma, the angles of which bear the corpuscles. The front consists of two (sometimes only one, the other abort- ing) long, slender follicles (i. e. fruit opening along one side only), containing numerous flattened, pendulous seed, lying over each other like tiles on a house, each furnished at the apex with a tuft of long silky hairs, and presenting, when the testa, or skin, is removed, two leaf-like cotyledons ending in a pointed radicle. The leaves are in pairs, two and two, opposite; without stipules ; and the peduncle, supporting the flowers, is not . truly axillary but more or less removed from that point, between the leaves. Endowed with structural peculiarities and habits so unique, the station of this order, in the vegetable kingdom, is still perhaps a problem to be solyed, but in the present state of our knowledge, nearly all Botanists coincide in considering it more nearly allied to Apocynacee than any other. The younger De Candolle indeed goes so far as to say that the two orders are only kept apart by the difference of their pollen, showing how nearly they correspond in their general aspect and properties, when so acute an observer, after much study, has come to such a conclusion. It is one however which I cannot quite adopt, though I fully admit their near relationship. They seem also related to both Jasminee and Loganiacee, but are distinguished by having, like Apo- cynacee, a two-parted ovary and follicular fruit, and, usually, milky juice, none of which occur in these last-named orders. Of their economical applications little need be said here. A few are employed in medicine ; some yield dyes; one or two are celebrated for the tenacity of their fibres, which are made into cordage, bow strin ft ZG fp ii j E AA) Af a 2 ee - SS asoninumd revolutum Lin’) a; a ae Wf p. “ Mafrclie Le Kil of ettaecee, 182 a SS Se Ca —~ RY x. St rT, '= ae SS ae Wy oe Gan ney S's : : ms re heya Lecaiitneanasth Ai) toe Of we ECMO’ tpl pute | Lte/ /83 Duarrp) fesp, Let. lx gpiyid fusilia UWEA NEILGHERRY PLANTS. AT CEROPEGIA. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla tubular, more or less ventricose at the base, funnel-shaped ; lobes of the limb compressed, strap-shaped, erect, often curved and cohering at the apex, not seldom ciliolate, valvate in zstivation. Staminal crown in a double series, campanulate or rotate, 5-10—15-lobed, the lobe opposite, the anther, usually the longest ligulate, often approximated at the apex. Anthers simple atthe apex, desti- tute of membrane. Pollen masses erect, roundish, pellucid on the inner margin. Stigma flat. Follicles cylindrical, smooth, of parchment-like texture. Seed comose.—Twining shrubs or herbs, roots usually bulbous, stems woody or succulent, leafless or, oftener, foliaceous: leaves often more or less succulent, flowers umbellate, greenish-white, mottled with purplish or violet spots, more rarely uniformly yellowish. —Decaisne, slightly altered. P Of this genus, Decaisne characterizes 38 species, 21 of which are natives of India and the Eastern Islands. To these I have since added 7 species, raising the number to 28, and my herbarium still contains some unpublished species ; so that it seems not improbable, the number of Indian species, now in herbaria, exceeds the total number known to him. They are curious plants, especially as regards the reproductive apparatus, which is situated at the bottom of a long tube, and completely secluded from external influences, of a character suited to displace the pollen masses from the sacks of the anthers. This is accomplished by insects which can easily enter in search of the honey secreted at the bottom, but once in, they cannot return till the flower fades, owing to the tube being lined with stiff hairs directed inwards and down- wards, like the wires of a mouse trap. Thus imprisoned, the restless little creature is made the medium of bringing about fertilization, which could not otherwise take place; after which the flower fades, the hairs lose their rigidity and collapse, liberating the little prisoner to repeat the operation in another flower. Several of the species of this genus so closely resemble each other that it is occasionally difficult to distinguish them by their more obvious external marks. In such cases I have had recourse to the staminal crown which varies in different species, but is most constant in each. The value of this “ for the discrimination of species, will be seen by comparing those of the four here given. The following brief description of that portion of the organization may be useful towards explaining the mode of apply- ing its variations to the determination of species. The staminal crown, when present, in this order, consists of 5 pieces, attached to the stamens and alternate with the lobes of the corolla, ia it. appears to consist of a double series; the inner, of 5 pieces in the usual place, opposite or attached to te’ filaments ; the outer, 10-lobed, or two lobes to each lobe of the interior. The inner series is generally much longer than the outer, but sometimes they are nearly equal, as in C. elegans ; and then they are united by pairs to the inner one, and divided from each other. In other cases, the outer is much shorter than the other, with the lobes united for about half their length to each other, and free from the inner, as in C. pusilla ; a third form is where the lobes of the outer are united nearly their whole length, strap-like, merely slightly cleft at the apex, asin C. Decaisneana ; and in the fourth, C. ciliata, they are short, very broad, semicircular, and notched or emargmate. Other forms occur where the outer series seems wanting, having altogether coalesced with the inner. With the aid of these variations, the species are easily sub-divided into groups, which greatly facilitates their determination, as it is rare that similar looking, but distinct, species coincide in presenting both externa and internal marks so nearly alike, as to leave it doubtful whether or not they are varieties of the same species, a common occurrence in other very natural genera. April. An extensively twining, somewhat succulent Ceropeata Decatsneana (R. W.), twinin lab- aca \ ) Fe shrub, leaves from 6 to 8 inches long, about 1 broad ; rous: leayes lanceolate, acuminate at both ends. acute, hispid above, from short scattered rigid hairs, glabrous beneath 6-flowered h purp ilgherries, on Malabar, corolla nearly 3 inches long, about 4 of which forms the dilated base ; secondary lobes of the crown yel- low, tipped with purple without, deep purple within : follicles long and slender, not much thicker than whip cord. Crropeera pusitta(W. and A.), herbaceous, glab- rous, er s high: root tuberous: leaves lin flowers axi rect: ¢ ; cfhdtical, longer than the lobes of the limb: ex- 48 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. terior lobes of the staminal crown — shorter, the interior ones longer than the gynostegium: folli- vad — about two inches long, attenuated at the PNeilgherses, in ‘eee ground, but rare. I found it more abundant on the banks of the Picarrah river than ptecheeery but ena too it ot ane to be closely looked for. The specimen figured is a large one of lant. ROPEGIA cILIATA (R. W.), suffruticose, twinin ps tuberous, stems glabrous, leaves short, petiol a ovate, lanceolate, aol towards the point, tsely pubesce ~~ ” gud aban on the veins henesiht, ciliate uncles ey the leaves, a constant, though, from the shortness of the hairs, not a conspicuous, feature in this plant, ow unfortunately been alt together overlooked by t artist: in other —— the figure a a esi ies of the plan Ceropeeia ELEGANS (Wall.), twining, glabrous, ete wee or oblong-lanceolate, pisetit ost shortly acuminate, acute, somewha culent, clot peduncles equaling the petiols, few flower ee tube of the base, purplish speckled lobes abachola, acumi- nate, cohering a apex, often ciliate: exterior lobes of the ieocinat: oe ligulate, approximated, interior ones longer, i more or less united at the points: follicles ers cp slender, ds sub- about half the et of | the Tacos Mate, 3 6- wered: calyx ri Pa Sa tes ann torulose: pollen masses brownish-coloured.—D. C. the ventricose base of rolla: corolla glabrous, , 642. i Neilgh erries, frequent. The specimens figured emarginate, were gathered in Kotergherry, on the Eastern de- ciliate, interior ones clavate, recurved at the points: scent. e however met with it in many other follicles about 3 inches long, linear, tapering towards places. It varies considerably in the colour of its e poin flowers, the limb being i clifts of rock at Katie Falls, Neilgherries, flow- pale, the cilie are as often wanting as present, and ering = une and July. The ciliation of the margins of seem to separate readily. BAZ OLEPIS. Calyx 5-parted, corolla wheel-shaped, limb 5-parted, throat furnished with 10, or by cohesion of pairs, 5 minute scales at the bottom of the sinuses; throat bound with a ring below the scales. Filaments short, broad at the base, narrower above, each bearing a flat, bifid, appressed, coronal scale. Anthers cohering to the margin of the stigma, terminated by membrane adhering at the apex. Pollen masses ten, oval, granular, attached by pairs to the dilated, funnel-shaped limb of the corpuscle. Stigma muticous, depressed, 5-angled. Follicles divaricated, smooth, T shrubs; ramuli pubescent: leaves “sears oval, abruptly acuminate, the younger ones ‘libel sm Aabtous: shining above, parallelly veined. Cymes interpetiolar, small, ane | divi- sions afterwards elongating, spike-like: flowers Aes crowded; calyx and corolla externally hairy: segments of the corolla triangular, sea purple within, spreading during the day, eateries partially closing, becoming sub-campanulate The species here represented is the only one, yet known, appertaining to the genus, and, so far a3 [ have seen, is only found on the Neilgherries. It is common about Kotergherry and readily recopninedl by the very dark green colour of the upper surface of the leaves, and their pale under surface, added to the almost whitish, very hairy young shoots and inflorescence which nearly conceals the very small, almost inconspicuous, flowers, except, during clear weather, when fully expanded ; they then become conspicuous owing to their dark colour, contrasting with the light colour of their supports. The examination of fresh specimens enabled me to detect some errors in our original generic character which, however, were unfortunately overlooked, when preparing the analysis, which was not made under my eye, and not corrected when sending it to the The points requiring alteration were what relates to the pollen masses, and coronal scales. The former, in the original character, were stated to be four to each stamen, but which in several flowers I examined, I have always found limited to two, of an oval form, attached by one eyd to the dilated, cup-like limb of the funnel-shaped corpuscle, the pollen granular. The latter seems to have been overlooked in our former dissection, apparently, owing to their lying flat on the back of the filament. Another point, requiring emendation, was the character of the inflorescence which, in the original specimen, was two young to exhibit it correctly. At first it is truly cymose, but at length, through the elongation of the divisions, acquires a spike-like form, or in other words becomes cymoso- spicate. The points of the — which adhere so as to form a kind of vault over the stigma, are not the true anthers but rather prolongations of the connectives beyond the cells of the anther. CR Meapel ; A A cepuadew bo fy) ap es 7 L a. oe Pie oe ye Wy clipuirdlew f (copegin gars Wall) Ee’. ¥ y sielopicu [WEL SVEN CFL é 4 c“4 _ ccuchiuyly Le B ) = pm oO —_ i335) vt ’ LEPTACANTHUS. Calyx deeply 5-parted, lobes narrow, the upper one often longer. Corolla funnel-shaped, limb five- lobed, somewhat unequal, the two upper ones larger. Stamens 4, didynamous not projecting ; anthers at first cordate, afterwards oval; cells parallel, contiguous. Style filiform ; stigma awl-shaped, curved back- wards at the point; ovary 4-ovuled; ovules orbicular, borne on thick processes (retinacula). Capsule oblong, 2-celled from the base, 4-seeded, below the middle. Shrubby or herbaceous plants; flowers dis- posed in terminal trichotomous panicles, interspersed with small leaves; branches of the panicles opposite. Bracteoles wanting when the lobes of the calyx are very unequal, when nearly equal two, narrow, attached to the base of the calyx. Corolla handsome, blue or red. So far as known to Nees, this is a small genus consisting of three species. I haye however reason to suspect that it must be considerably enlarged, and can scarcely help thinking, that the accompanying species must yet be separated from the Ceylon plant, whose name I have given it. At the time the draw- comparison of the two plants will, I suspect, show other discrepancies, but in the mean time they must be admitted as very nearly allied species if not actually the same, Should they prove distinct, this may be called L. fruticosa, in allusion to its shrubby habit, sometimes attaining to the height of nearly 20 As the plate will show, it is a very handsome shrub, abundant in the woods between Pycarrah and Nedawuttim, but like many others of the order, labours under the disadvantage, for ornamental purposes, of not flowering annually. I have not ascertained the length of the intervals but feel pretty certain that acter of the Ceylon L. Walkeri and may not quite correspond. The colour I have assigned is wrong, it ought to have been deep pink approaching to crimson. LePracaNnTHus Waker (Nees), panicle densely cuspidate, lacinez of the calyx narrow, very villous, Piate-viom: lobes of the perianth linear-fili- the upper segment longer, straight: coro] 9-10 lines orm, the upper one a little longer: cauline leaves oval long, cylindrical, ventricose, lobes of the limb sub- oblong, pubescent beneath ; floral ones, at least the repand, dark pink, or purplish coloured. : maries, ovate, acuminate, small.—Upper branches The specimens represented are from the Neil- iry, leaves with the petiol from 6 inches to a foo herries, where it flowered in great perfection during long 13 to 3 inches broad, acuminate or caudato- ebruary and March 1846. Se pees, beudllew : A fp iAge sy dychacicoimarrdelatar 3 (Nee) / JA VWACOLk Meant ip ff / bullet Apbnsk, { LS i A oe lan ae, It / Lay pi hi A (“4 et fs L 7 ay’ 4 nivathitld Le AVE pe a , va ; oy Se L PWenieee AMM Vuslis vs i He) Sp Ui Dumphy Lith © NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 71 GOLDFUSSIA. ported on retinacula, Shrubs with serrated penninerved leaves, nerves curved, all tending towards the apex, but not reaching it. Flowers few, capitulate, rarely spicate, bibracteolate. Bracts deciduous. Spikes elongating after the fall of the bracts. Capitula peduncled, with the peduncle simple or divided. Under this character, Nees arranges 24 species, of two of these, I possess authentic specimens both of which are represented in my Icones. A close comparison of the generic characters with those of these species shows several discrepancies nearly as striking as those observable in the plant, which forms the by the excellent Dr. Schmid, but which I have not been able to recognize among my series of Neilgherry Acanthacee, though pretty complete. My impression is that the characters of both these genera are too loosely constructed, and that both will require to be carefully recast, and further, that from among the present species, one or two new genera will require to be added to give uniformity and consistency to the whole. ‘The genus Strobilanthes, as it now stands, is most heterogeneous and complex, but we are not the less indebted to the learned professor for his revision, not merely of the genus, but of the whole of this most difficult order which when he entered upon it was a truly herculean task. Now the labour will be a com- paratively light one, a few only of the larger genera requiring to be thoroughly recast. Of the species published in my Icones, I consider G. Dalhousie, penstemonoides, and decurrens genuine examples: as already stated, I do not feel by any means certain of the one here given. One circumstance not noticed by Nees in his generic character is the inequality in the size of the two leaves coming off from each joint, a mark which I find constant in all those of which I have specimens, but according to the specific char- acters not found in all the species. Of two specimens, indeed, of G. isophylla, one has them very unequal, _ the other nearly equal, but notwithstanding that discrepancy I look upon it as a valuable character, while in the perhaps too nearly allied genus Strobilanthes, it is so rare that I doubt whether the species, in which it is said to occur, truly belong to that genus. Goxprussia Tristis (R.W.), shrubby, erect, leaves The generic distinction between Goldfussia and unequal, elliptico-lanceolate, acuminate, acutely ser- Strobilanthes 1s to me very obscure, and I am unable rated, glabrous on both sides: inflorescence panicu- lato-spicate ; spikes sub-capitate, long pedicelled, to the one or other genus. t fi drooping, few- (above 2-) flowered, involucrate: in- Strobilanthes, and fear, on reconsideration, v of the calyx long, ciliate at the apex: corolla infun- 6 to 10 inches long, flowers pale blue. Each capit- dibuliform, limb regular, tube very hairy within; ulum, usually only 2 stamens monodelphous at the base, anthers oblong: site bracts, as shown at fig. lyx is not very well shown in capsule 4-seeded ; seeds near the base, the lower pubescence of the calyx in b-trun- fig. 3, the hairs len then as they approach the apex ones often aborting, upper oblong, obtuse, sub-trun g. alee ene fo 4 AO cate, pubescen an Western slopes of the Neilgherries under shade by the road-side, about 2 miles below Sisparrah. Flow- ering February. 72 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. STROBILANTHES. Calyx about equal, 5-parted to the base; lacinez linear, somewhat broader towards the apex. Corolla funnel-shaped, the tube not passing abruptly into the limb; lobes equal or nearly so, rarely sub-bilabiate. Stamens four, didynamous, inserted on the middle of the throat, usually within the filaments, united at the base by membrane ; anthers oblong, muticous, cells parallel, equal, contiguous, or in some diverging at the base, whence the anthers are sagittate. Stigma subulate, incurved or involute, spongiolose on the back. Capsule columnar, 4-sided, 2-celled almost to the base 4-seeded about the middle ; partition thin, incom- plete towards the apex, adnate, or sometimes separating from the valves. Seed discoid, angular, with an areola on both sides, the angles more prominent towards the hilum, attached to hooked retinacula. Herbs and shrubs, spikes more or less dense, axillary and terminal, erect, cernuous, or drooping. Bracts foliaceous or foliaceo-membranous, persistent or caducous, exposing the flowers, bracteoles small or sometimes want- ing. Flowers, in most, delicate blue or white. fuse, which however is corrected by an abreviated essential character in these terms, “ Calyx 5-parted, sub- equal. Corolla funnel-shaped subequal. Stamens incluse, sometimes monadelphous ; anthers straight, muti- cous. Capsule 4-sided not unguiculate, 4-seeded in the middle. Spikes axillary and terminal, usually com- pact, broadly bracteate and cone-like, in some loose.” To illustrate this genus three plates are given. The first, S. sessilis, is I believe a true representative—the second, S. Wightiana, ought in my opinion to form the type of a new genus which might include my S. duridus, and S. micranthus, all readily distinguish- able by their peculiar stamens, which are totally unlike those of all the other species I have examined. So long as S. luridus was the only one I knew having that peculiarity, I considered it a new genus, but on finding it correspond with one of Nees’ species I submitted to his authority, and placed it in this genus, I now think, erroneously. As it now stands, in De Candolle’s Prodromus, this is a very difficult genus as regards the determination of the species, which I think might have been to some degree obviated by greater care in their subdivision and grouping, hence the desirableness of having the whole genus recast. STROBILANTHES sEsstxis (Nees), suffruticose, very serrated; spikes ascending, one or two together, op- hairy, stem erect, 4-angle : leaves sessile, ovate, posite: bracts large, orbicular, emarginate or slightly acuminate, crenate, spikes axillary, opposite and ter- retuse at the apex, dark livid brown; bracteol: crenate: spikes about an inch: calyx about 3 an the back: corolla 5-lobed, lateral lobes reflexed, inch long, the lobes lanceolate, the two lower ones hence apparently bilabiate: stamens united by pairs . a ¥ e , all equal, exerted; anthers oblong: cap- pale blue up to purplish. Stamens shortly monadel- sule about the length of the calyx, somewhat com- phous at the base, jo yamembrane. Capsule pressed, 4-seeded: seed orbicular, glabrous. oblong, smoo' obtuse or somewhat attenuated at Neilgherries, in wood near Nedawuttim. Flower- the base, 4-seeded in the middle. ing January and February 1846. When I visited STROBILANTHES PERROTTETIANUS (Nees), shrub- the station in 1847 and 1848, I did not find it in by, branches reddish, hairy: leaves ovate, caudato- flower though I found the plant in abundance, hence cuspidate, undulato-crenate, hairy, very rough above: it seems only to flower once in several years. Cor- spikes axillary, opposite, secund, ov nodding, olla deep purplish brown, scarcely exceeding the dense, hairy ; bracts ovate, acute, the interior ones large dull lurid bracts, a : : us. —_ | at first considered this the type of a genus near —An erect shrub, 3-8 feet high, thickly covered Strobilanthes and proposed calling it, with reference with brownish-purple bristles, becoming smoother by to the stamens, Didyplosandra, thinking that they, : 8 inches long, 1 to 2 broad, hairy; added to the peculiar habit, were sufficient to con- peduncles 1-3 inches long, simple or bifid or trifid, stitute this a distinct genus. But on comparing them naked. Spikes about an inch long, compact, hairy. with those of S. Wightiana, a species (of which I had membrane, capsule contracted at the base, ferenc f ic value, or such as to call compressed, 2-seeded in the middle. : iia ia eo le e unfrequent on ” ays outskirts of My own impression, however, is, that they, and some und, ers to i ; : W.), a large, ra- the genera Goldfussia an Strobilanthes, either united mous shrub ; branches virgate, bearing the inflores- or recast on amended characters. As they now stand : 1 cence on the lower naked portions: leaves i istinguishable. oblong, acuminate, pubescent on both sides, Snely os a gp ea —— os - 4a VIA, / vy. ct f) A We Zé t LLMME 7 de wo hp p Pt FAL te) & a) Cavers SN cS as) ang ee) 7 \™ “fbdl i “a y/ Lott pg ba “7 pes we W4 SN f Vout Lit YES bf Govendoo dal f Auvanwld /. / Ved, / - y 4#t a7) er) + 4A Fs Lie 7. “dé LED CLA ip a J? —— etc lb yy S AYN iN OF/ (a My Mavrniniily NEILGHERRY PLANTS. io ADHATODA. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, lobes equal. Corolla ringent, tube shortish, upper lip concave, lower 3-lobed. Stamens 2, inserted below the middle of the tube; anthers 2-celled, cells oblique on the connective one somewhat above the other, the lower ones spurred. Stigma obtuse, capsule depressed! four-seeded in the middle; seeds either lenticular or flat. Herbs or shrubs: flowers various in form: leaves quite entire. Spikes either axillary opposite, or the flowers axillary, or the spikes terminal. Bracts and bracteoles often large, longer than the calyx, flowers either opposite, or, by abortion, one ranked. this genus, Nees, in his recent monograph, in De Candolle’s Prodromus, describes 98 species; about 20 of which claim India as their native country. Generally they are inhabitants of the warmer regions within the tropics, hence they are rare on the Hills. The one here being almost the only species found at so high an elevation as Dodabet. It is found all over the higher ranges of the Hills lying flat on the ground, nestling among the grass, if in open exposed situations, but when growing among bushes or under shade, shows some tendency to take advantage of the support and become more conspicuous, It is rather pretty when seen among the deep-green coloured grass to which its cream coloured bracts and light green leaves form a contrast, but apart from these accompaniments, it has little to recommend it to the attention of the florist. Apuatopa Nemonerrica (Nees), leaves lanceo- mund, where it is always in flower. A low procum- late, sessile, glabrous, smooth: spikes terminal, 4- bent plant, lying flat on the ground, but rendered sided; bracts and bracteoles ovate, acuminate, ve- conspicuous from the grass, among which it grows, noso-3-nerved, glabrous. i i Neilgherries, frequent in pastures about Ootaca- ANDROGRAPHIS. Calyx deeply 5-parted, equal, lobes narrow. Corolla 2-lipped, upper lobe entire or bifid, inferior trifid, unless when resupinate, when the contrary is the case. Stamens two, anthers two-celled, cells parallel, bearded at the base. Capsule ovate, or lanceolate, depressed, 2-celled to the base, 4- or many-seeded ; par- tition attached to the valves. Seeds oval, obtuse, roundish ; obliquely truncated at the base, pitted thimble- like, with a deep hilum. Herbaceous annuals or under shrubs, decumbent or erect, stem and branches Bracts opposite, shorter than the calyx, bracteoles wanting, or two, minute, at the base of the pedicel; flowers more or less rough or glandular, white or variously purple ; lobes of the calyx linear or filiform, eapsule linear, oblong, flattened. Of this genus Nees describes 11 species, but this is not one of them. He separates this and a con- gener under the name of Erianthera, partly on the ground of difference of habit which would have been | well enough had the distinction been made to rest on that alone, but that not being the principal reason assigned to the two genera rest on assumed differences of the anthers which do not exist, namely, Erianthera, « inferior cell of the anthers abortive reduced to a woolly beard.” Andrographis, “anthers 2-celled, cells parallel, bearded at the base.” A reference to the magnified figures of the anthers will at once show that they correspond with the character of the last and that this is therefore a genuine species of Andro- graphis, though differing in habit, and that this therefore, and his other species, can at best form but a section of the genus distinguished by its depressed diffuse habit. The genus Andrographis, is so nam- ed, somewhat fancifully, perhaps, in allusion to the tuft of hairs on the end of the anthers resemb- ling a camel-hair pencil, and may, I fancy, be translated Pencil-beard. It is an interesting one to the Creyat, (Andrographis (or Justicia) paniculata,) is a very generally diffused plant in the stunted jungle, which covers the low rocky hills so common in the Peninsula, as well as along the bases of all our yi 74 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. greater ranges of mountains. With the exception of this, and another species common in Mysore, the genus consists of erect growing plants the stems of which are acutely 4-sided, with the smallish flowers borne on axillary shoots, generally all turned to one side, some however have them, as in the accompanying, ranged in opposite pairs, along the branch. There is therefore nothing to separate this from them, except its procumbent habit, a view in which I think Nees himself will coincide on re-examining them. This plant is, like the preceding, found nestling among the grass, all over the Hills, but requires to be looked for, otherwise it may easily be overlooked by the unpractised eye. It strikes me, it might with advantage be introduced into gardens from the compact tufts of purple flowers which it forms. Anproerapuis LoBELioweEs (R. W., Erianthera, graphis under the name of Erianthera, on account Nees), herbaceous, diffuse, procumbent: leaves sub- of the anthers. “ Anthere loculus inferior abortivus ovato-orbicular, mucronulate, flowers terminal, race- in barbum laniformem solutus.” As this is certainly mose, not the case in either of the two species, I have Neilgherries, rather frequent in pastures, nestling taken the liberty of restoring both to Andrographis. among the grass, but quite conspicuous from its See plate 517. The tuft of wool in this species is tufts of brownish purple flowers. Nees has sepa- on the back of the connectivum, but not well shown rated this and a nearly allied species from Andro- in the figure. SCROPHULARIACE. This is one of those families which, from the uniformity of its characters and the vast number of its species, tend to show in a striking light the advantages of the natural system of botany over the Linnean sexual, or indeed any other artificial one. The family embraces upwards of 2000 known species, and nearly 200 genera, all, except one or two genera, having irregular flowers, 2 or 4 stamens, in the latter case usually didynamous, a free 2-celled ovary, axile placenta, and numerous minute albuminous seed. In the sexual system, the species are distributed among four classes, unconnected with each other, and grouped among genera having no relationship with each other. Here, on the other hand, they are all so closely associated that it is often difficult to draw the line between them. The genus Verbascum, not unfrequent about Ootacamund, is one of the excep- tions referred to above, it having regular pentandrous flowers, and to that extent is more justly referable to Solanacec, but is necessarily kept here through the medium of Celsia, a true member of the order, but which only differs from Verbascum in having 4 in place of 5 stamens, so that it might either be viewed as a tetrandrous Verbascum or, vice versa, Verbascum as a pentandrous Celsia, hence the affinities, generally, being with the Scroph- ulariacese it is placed in this order. This circumstance is interesting and worthy of notice as showing how orders that are really natural pass into each other. Leaving out the distinctive characters of the flowers, Solanaceee and Scrophulariacee would become one, but by admitting them into the respective essential characters they are easily kept distinct ; the flowers of Solanacece being regular and symmetrical throughout, while those of Serophulariacee are very generally irregular and unsymmetrical. Dr. Lindley, vies his “ Vegetable Kingdom,” lays great stress on this distinction, and on the strength of it Separates the two orders to a considerable distance, though thus actually passing into each other by an almost imperceptible transition, An order so extensive has, as a matter of course, relationships with many other orders besides the one mentioned, but none so very close, with the exception perhaps of Orobanchacee, several of the species of which have been referred here. Orobanchs differ in habit, all the species being parasitic leafless plants, the stems being furnished with scales in place of leaves, but the flowers and seed are nearly the same in both, the essential 161 a ft COLL A M “y fo tielitiyprpldleté , = Mae ST 2 2, A natecgpapehis hbeiiaes 6M) Govindee, lal. NEILGHERRY PLANTS. i fe] difference therefore is found in the ovary which has parietal, not axile, placentas as in true Scrophulariacez, a distinction however not always easily made out. Cyrtandracee is another order which very nearly approaches this, having similarly formed flowers but having, like the Orobanchs, parietal placentas, This order has a very extended geographical distribution, but most abounds in the northern hemisphere. In India, the number of its species is certainly considerable, though small as compared with the whole order, but then they are found all over the world, extend- ing from the Arctic to the Antartic circle, from Melville Island to Terra del Fuego. In India, they are found in all soils and situations from the sea shore to the tops of the highest mountains, in marsh and on the most arid plains, in the deepest recesses of the forest and exposed to the full blaze of our tropical sun. _ With the exceptions of Digitalis and the officinal Gratiola, the properties of this family are not of much consequence. The former is important as supplying a peculiar narcotic, remarkable for its power of allaying and modifying excessive or irregular action of the heart, while, at the same time, acting as a powerful diuretic. The other Gratiola is an active drastic. Many of the species are admired for their handsome flowers and find a place in the flower garden, not the least worthy of which is the Torenia asia- tica, found as a weed by the road sides on the Hills; though little thought of there, imme- diately it found its way into English gardens it took its place among the choice prize flowers of their floral exhibitions. Many species of Digitalis have handsome flowers and are very ornamental, while the Snap-dragons and Toad-flaxes are found in almost every garden, Several of the Hill species might be turned to similar account, and growing in their native climate might, with the aid of appropriate culture, become interesting addi- tions to the flower border. Limnophila hypericifolia, is a very beautiful species, but in- habits marshy ground and might not perhaps take kindly to the garden, but if it did, and the flowers enlarged under cultivation, and their present lilac colour deepened into blue or purple, which I think probable, as some of the other species have very deep blue flowers, it would become very ornamental, the flowers contrasting favourably with the bright shining green of the leaves. The Pedicularis is also well worth cultivation, could it be made to flower at other than its natural season, as it is then too common to meet with much notice in the garden. Another species of the genus, P. Perrottetii, which I have never had the good fortune to find growing, but which is found in valleys of the Koondahs, is really a most charming plant, and deserving of every care in cultivation. Its flowers are nearly 4 inches long, and I am told pure white. It ought to be in every garden. VERBASCUM. Calyx deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted, rarely 5-toothed. Corolla spreading, wheel-shaped, rarely concave, lobes somewhat unequal. Stamens 5, the three posterior ones, or all, woolly, rarely naked. : Style flattened at the apex, thickish. Capsule globose, ovoid, or oblong, dehiscent. Herbs, usually biennial, rarely peren- nial or suffruticose, usually erect, tall, more or less tomentose, or covered with fleecy wool, Leaves all alternate, the radical ones usually large, long-petioled, the cauline ones progressively shorter, more sessile or decurrent. Corolla ephemeral, yellow, brown, purple, or red, rarely white. Of this vast genus, including nearly 100 species, 4 only are found in India, and two of these common to Europe, so that one might almost suppose they had been ? ee a ean ne Peer naturalized. In general appearance they so greatly resemble Célsia, one species of which is wee on the Hills, that they might almost be mistaken, but are generally easily distinguished by the flowers, 76 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Verbascum having 5, Celsia, 4 stamens. V. virgatum often attains a great height. I have measured plants upwards of 8 feet high, and believe that taller ones may sometimes be met with. It is interesting in con- nection with the climate, as showing how much that of the autumnal months of the Hills assimilates with that of summer in Europe. , Versascum vircatum (Withering), stem sub- Neilgherries, frequent, flowering during the rainy viscoso-hispidulous or glabrous at the base: leaves season. oblong, glabrous, or glanduloso-hispid beneath; the This plant not unfrequently attains the height of inferior ones peti i innati om 6 to 7 feet, though from 3 to 4 is the more the superior ones sessile or cordato-amplexicaul, or common size. Flowers yellow, nearly sessile, the shortly decurrent: racemes glanduloso-hispid ; pedi- short bent filaments densely clothed with purplish- cels 2 or 3 together, rarely solitary, shorter or about coloured, woolly hairs. the length of the calyx: filaments clothed with vio- let-coloured woolly hairs (violaceo-lanatis), o 5 ES a ® S = 2 S wm B A 7 La =| 5 my > LIMNOPHILA. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, or parted, equal or with the posterior lobe larger. Upper lip of the corolla emar- ginate or 2-lobed, the lower one 3-lobed; throat not plicate, stamens 4, incluse, cells of the anthers sepa- rate, oblong, often stipulate. Style deflexed at the apex, dilated, entire, or shortly bilamellate, often two- winged at the flexure. Capsule ovate, globose or compressed, the valves splitting along the back (loculi- cide bivalvis) the valves afterwards 2-parted; the slightly inflexed margins separating from the broad placentiferous partition. Tropical, herbaceous, marshy or aquatic plants, often punctuate with pellucid glands, leaves opposite or 3-4-verticelled, the lower submerged ones in aquatic species capellacio-multifid. Flowers oblong, axillary, or the upper ones disposed in a leafy raceme, the calyx often bibracteolate. Of this genus Mr. Bentham has described 22 species, 20 of which are natives of India; the other two are from Java. This therefore is almost a purely Indian genus but is not confined to India, several species being found in other countries, the Eastern Islands, Java, Australia, &c., a common occurrence in the represented grew in some swampy ground in Kotergherry, attaining the height of between 3 and 4 feet, flowering in August and September. It is a pretty plant when in full flower but loses its beauty as the seed advance towards maturity, Limnoramas HYPERICIFoLIa (Bentham), branched, 1-2 feet high. Leaves about an inch long, rooting at the base, a : leaves sessile, ovate, ctuate. Corolla 7-9 lines long. Style winged oblong, obtuse, cordately semiamplexicaul at the at the bract with 2 acutish falcate auricles. Cap- base; th aa ones smaller: racemes terminal or sule short, valvate, bifid. nd axillary: flo ers se remote: calyx Kotergherry, Neilgherries, in swampy ground, deeply 5-cleft, divisions lanceolate, the posterior one flowesing = hank . larger.—Herbaceous, repent at the base, scarcely PEDICULARIS. obtuse, entire, or furnished with a tooth on each side, or prolonged into a truncated or bidentate beak: lower lip often two-erested, 3-lobed, lo ing or deflexed, the middle one smaller, exterior in estiva- , apex, spliting along the back from the apex, to near the base, and for _ Space in front, the valves bearing the partition. Seed in the lower part of the capsule attached or arely simply dentate, decreasing in size from the radical to the floral ones. Flowers spicate, bracteo- ite; floral bract-like leaves like the cauline ones. A. UWIVGY, PL CLeddp a if Pi bee hh lad Sole fi . Ak O/ oO F Lé nae lr ated U ———— —— ~ EE —— ‘he VWip9Za A : oy camer : —— ss « Da\r = Va! x ‘\ “ « SS Sif Uf oe, > =\ | [Lf r Pye Sb \i , S Wy iy ZH ‘TS on Cpl > cS) SS bei ie i “ ee si \ > ~~ LEA ee PRON a SERIES SE Ge —— 7/4 oe ? ~ \/ <——— : oy iy Ui Zz <4 % ee Hs Za 4, 7 CA) a | Z ka a SS ; _\ = Cam fm. Sve mA eS s aN peownpnypypago a : / / COMME pe y, WHA. a /84 100 4p j ; C p/ eg he ff Af Pd md DP - ban / / Linnipbedla/ Appetit Govindoo, del’ /8E- la elitieie! oe es oe : CA of thls Cc Md, Joe ; COME? Y/ / fp Wa hy ‘07th al : y i A | We We a) deculad poy We ALAN ] a a \" : ~h\\ ; ~ ; [= 4 aN — ) smears ae = ti, { A NEILGHERRY PLANTS. at Under this very extended generic character, Mr. Bentham ranges 109 species. The genus is a most natural one, so much so, that out of so large an assemblage only seven plants are excluded as having been erroneously referred, a truly rare case, especially in genera of such ancient date, this being a Linnean one. Like all very natural, large genera, the discrimination of its species is attended with much difficulty. The one here represented is so variable, that it might almost be split into two or three for being generally dis- tributed in both humid and dry soil, it assumes very different forms according as it grows in the one or other, sometimes quite erect, as in the specimen selected by the artist, at others ramous, all the branches lying flat on the ground without any central shoot. It also varies more or less in the depth of colour of its flowers. In all its forms however the hood or helmet (galea) is blunt or without a beak. There is another nearly allied Himalayan species, but not, so far as I have observed, found on the Hills, having the apex prolonged into a tapering beak, a character by which it is at once distinguished from this. Of the 107 species belonging to the genus, 20 only are natives of India, mostly from the Himalayas. Two are indi- genous on the Neilgherries, one of them only found there, the other, P. zeylanica, has a wider range, being found on other hills and in Ceylon. | When dried for the herbarium they lose their colour and change to a dirty black. a truly beautiful flower. It varies considerably in its habit, growing, as in the instance selected for representation, quite erect, and having very few branches, even at the base, or loosely diffuse without Pepicuraris Zeyianica (Benth.), furfuraceo-pu- bescent, or rarely nearly glabrous; loosely ramous base; branches ascending or erect: leaves this obtuse, beakless. abundant on the Neilgherries is, when in perfection, any central stem, only a number of loose, procum- bent branches, springing on all sides from the crown to the root, eac i terminating in beautiful pink flowers. It commences flowering in June and July and continues until the end of the rains. . SOLANACE/E. This is a large and in many respects an interesting family, on account of its peculiar properties. As already remarked it very nearly coincides with Scrophulariacee in its botanical characters, mainly differing in its regular pentandrous flowers, these, in Scrophu- lariacee, being irregular with either two or four didynamous stamens. The ovary is the same in both, but the fruit is not equally uniform, being in some genera of Solanaceae, baccate, and in others capsular, while in the other it is almost always capsular. But as re- gards properties they are very different, those of Scrophulariacee being, with a few excep- tions, of small note, the plurality being nearly valueless to man, while those of Solanacee are in many instances highly energetic, furnishing, according to their mode of application, valuable remedies or deadly poisons. To this order we are indebted for Hyoscyamus, and Belladonna, two most valuable narcotics. To it also belongs the mischievous Datura, the narcotic properties of which are but too well known in India, but scarcely enough known to the Physician, since it is probable that if they were better known to him, he would find preparations of this plant in some cases even more valuable than either opium or henbane in inducing sleep in cases of extreme watchfulness and irritability. Its anti- spasmodic power in relieving asthmatic fits have been long known, but not much relied on, as it is seldom prescribed, perhaps from the uncertainty of its action. It is more used in India than Europe for this purpose, it being one of the native remedies often used for the palliation, at least, of this distressing disease. The most generally and extensively consumed plant of the order is perhaps the Tobacco, the facinating qualities of which in form of smoke and snuff have made it an almost universal favourite, with all classes and U 18 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. conditions of men, though well known to be a most energetic poison when received into the intestinal canal. I have known a child deprived of life in a few minutes from the administration of a too powerful Tobacco enema, The berries of the Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamera) are also intensely poisonous as proved by the frequency of fatal consequences to children who have ignorantly partaken of them. To set against these, this family furnishes the Potatoe to the world at large, and the Brinjal to the tropics and warm latitudes on either side, as nourishing esculents, equally prized by rich and poor; the so- called Brazil cherry (Physalis Peruviana), as a fruit, and the Capsicum as an equal] generally esteemed warm condiment with which to season the insipid vegetable diet on which Natives of tropical countries so largely subsist. And, lastly, it gives us the delicate Tomata the delight of the genuine Epicure. These examples show how largely mankind are indebted to this family for medicine, food, and luxuries: and, as if unwilling to leave any of his wants unprovided for, Brazil furnishes a Solanum which the inhabitants consider equal to the true Cinchona, in curing their fevers. This order contains about 1200 described species, but there are very many more col- lected in herbaria still undescribed, but which I presume we may ere long hope to see brought to light, through the medium of De Candolle’s Prodromus, when the monograph of the family appears in that great work, but which, unhappily for science, it has not yet done. Of the named and described species, nearly 100 belong to the Indian Flora, but many of these have been reduced to the rank of varieties by Professor Nees Von Esenbeck in a monograph of the Indian Solanacez, published about 16 or 17 years ago in the Linnean Transactions, Whether future Botanists will adopt these reductions remains to be seen. n its geographical distribution it occupies a wide range, extending from the tropics through both temperate zones, but are most abundant in the warmer regions. In India the species are not numerous, though individually abundant : they are found in nearly all situations in shade and sun-shine; in low moist grounds and elevated parched ones ; ou heaps of rubbish and in the best cultivated gardens, on the sea shore and tops of the loftiest mountains. Of the Peninsular ones none seem prized as ornamental objects, though the Datura, were it a less common and dangerous neighbour, might, on account of its large handsome trumpet-like flowers, merit a place in the shrubbery, the more so as it shows a strong tendency to become double, often presenting three or four corollas one within the other, like graduated sets of chemical test tubes. The Petunias are generally admitted into gardens and are deservedly prized as ornamental objects. SOLANUM. Calyx 4-5-8- or 10-cleft or toothed, persistent. Corolla rotate or rarely campanulate, plicate four- or five-cleft or sinuately angled. Anthers connivent, opening at the apex by two pores, equal, or sometimes the lower ones larger. Berries two- or rarely several-celled, many-seeded, naked. Seed glabrous, reniform. Embryo curved spirally round the edge enclosing the albumen. Herbs, shrubs or trees, unarmed or fur- nished with prickles, glabrous or hairy, the hairs sometimes stellate: leaves alternate, solitary or in pairs, one usually smaller, entire or variously di paired, fascicled or umbelled, racimose, cymose, or corymbed, rarely panicled; corolla white or purplish rarely yellow. This as it now stands recorded in Walper’s Repertorium Botanicum and Annals is a genus of vast extent, including about 600 species and as may be surmised from the conclusion of the generic character LOC oak) AL? ~\ SS . SN x ay S ~ Ss XY x ‘ & SI VS x ANY . SS ‘ NY y = AS ~ ~~“ , Nas y) ld U7, AUPE We Z z : af é A NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 79 is most polimorphous in its aspect, so much so that I can scarcely suppose that all the species now referred to it will long be permitted to retain the name; still less can I suppose that all its present interminable list of species will be retained, when once taken in hand by a competent Botanist with adequate materials for the determination of what are and are not good species. Nees, by being provided with such a series, was enabled to reduce those of the Indian Flora, by nearly a half. Previous to his examination it was a task of the most irksome kind to determine any species from a dozen specimens taken from as many different plants, as among them representatives of several could usually be found and then it was impossible to say which was the right one. The case is now altered, it being about as easy to make out the species of a Solanum as of any other genus, except in one or two instances where he seems to have carried his retrench- ments a step too far. This I suspect is the case in the example I have selected to illustrate the genus. But whether or not I am in error in this supposition, I feel certain that the plant represented is correctly named, according to his list. It is common in woods about Ootacamund. Soianum FEROX (Linn.), perennante-herbaceous, for dissenting from that view, but yet, I for the pre- woody at the base: leaves paired, cordate, sinuately sent adopt it, as my opportunities of examining the angled, woolly tomentose and prickly on both sides: correctness or otherwise of his opinion have not been peduncles intra-foliaceous and, like the short pedi- such as to satisfy me on the subject. One circum- cels calyx and berries, hairy. allum, flowering August and September, and these plants, No. , has not, so far as I am aware, Neilgherries always in flower. ee ith on the higher range of the Neil- NUM FEROX, minus. (Nees.) gherries, while the other is quite common. Neilgherries. Se Nees Von Esenbeck views these two forms as but causes me to doubt the correctness of Nees’ decision varieties of the same species. I think there is room in this instance. CONVOLVULACE. This is a large and beautiful family, many of the species of which are very deservedly much admired for the elegance of their forms and the richness of the colours of their flowers. Most of those found on the Hills are rather defective in these particulars being, for the most part, large coarse-growing plants and the flowers, without sufficient variation in their colours, a rose pink being the predominating one. The one here given is the only. species of Convolvulus I have met with, the others belonging to the genus Argyreia. The difference in generic characters between these two genera is not at first sight very conspicuous, and requires the aid of magnifying glasses to detect, as being found in the ovary and stigma. In this the style splits at the apex into two linear stigmas and the ovary has 2 cells, with 2 seed in each, while in Argyreia the style terminates in 2 rough globular heads and the ovary has 4 cells, with one seed in each. A more easily detected distinction is found in the fruit which, in Convolvulus, is a dry capsule, in Argyreia a fleshy berry. This last, the baccate fruit, is a peculiar feature in this order, and serves to unite into one group 8 genera which, when thus separated from the rest, are easily distinguished from each other by these brief characters. Rivea has two prolonged stigmas like Convol- vulus, and a 4-celled ovary, to which may be added a long narrow-tubed corolla. Argyreia has a capitate 2-lobed stigma and 4-celled ovary, with a short tubed campanulate corolla. Lettsomia is like Argyreia but has a 2-celled ovary, with 2 ovules in each cell, to which may be added that the stamens are sometimes longer than the corolla and exserted. This last however is not constant. The genus Jpomea, which is a very large one and very common in India, is distinguished from the last by the fruit only. It hasa dry pit sule which splits into two halves, has 2 cells and 4 seed, capitate 2-lobed rough stigma ; a campanulate corolla is common to both. By these simple marks these four genera which contain the bulk of the species of this family, found in India, are readily dis- tinguishable: the species, which are numerous, are of difficult discrimination. 80 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. The family is very widely distributed over the world, but very decidedly predom- inates within the tropics and warmer portions of the temperate zones. A few, however, extend almost to the confines of the frigid zones. Three are natives of England, and several others of Europe. The properties of this family are somewhat peculiar; one species yields the well known sweet potatoe of India; another, the still better known Jalap of the druggist ; and a third the Scammony. The two last are natives of America, and, what is remarkable, a variety of the Jalap plant yields large tubers which have lost the cathartic property of the species and are used as food. The roots of Ipomea turpethum, an Indian species, possesses properties similar to those of Jalap, and are in use among the Natives as a sub- stitute for that medicine. Several other species are used medicinally by the Natives, and a very large and handsome plant has got the name of snake-creeper, under the impression that snakes will not approach it! a foolish fancy, as I have seen snakes taking shelter under the abundant cover it affords for their concealment to such an extent that 1 was obliged to destroy a handsome arbour of it to get rid of them. Many of the species are cultivated for their beauty ; two, known under the name of scarlet creepers, species of the genus Quamoclit, are much prized for arbours, but, like many of the family, labour to Some extent under the disadvantage of early dropping their flowers. The moon flower Calonyction speciosum, formerly Ipomea bona-noe, is quite remarkable on this account, opening its large handsome flowers about sun-set and dropping them a little after sun- rise, whence the name “ good-night flower.” One of the most highly prized of the family for its ornamental qualities is the Pharbitis Nil which, in its native state, has rich blue flowers, but under cultivation becomes beautifully varigated, with the further advantage of retaining its flowers nearly the whole day. CONVOLVULUS. Sepals 5. Corolla campanulate. Style 1, stigmas 2, linear, cylindrical, often revolute. Ovary 2-celled with 4 ovules, capsule 2-celled. Herbs or shrubs. Under this character M. Choisy gives characters of 117 species, several of these however imperfectly known. Of that long list the only one I haye ever seen on the Neilgherries is the one here represented, which is a comparatively decumbent plant twining among grass, and though, when examined, not desti- tute of beauty is yet most modest and retiring in its habits, Were it introduced into the garden and made to twine on low bushes so as to bring its delicately-coloured flowers to light, I cannot help thinking it would soon find a place in most gardens, to the exclusion perhaps of some of the exotics, which require much more care and are less deserving of it than this, and many other native plants, which Iam most certain would be highly prized in English gardens, though so completely neglected in their native country. It is to be hoped a change in this respect will ere long come over the tastes of European sojourners, on these health-giving mountains, and especially of permanent residents, proprietors of houses and gardens. ConVoLvULUS RUFESCENS (Choisy), stems rusty 3 lines long; exterior ones ubescent: corolla 5-6 red: leaves hastato-cordate, acute at tha apex, sd lines hinge: Calpe giabeoen cronulate ; sinuate on the margin, 2 inches long, the _—_Neilgherries, not uncommon. auricles crenato-lobate ; petiols 7 lines long: pedun- = A_procumbent plant, spreading to a considerable cles short, 1-3-flowered : bracts minute: pedicels 3-6 extent among long grass. lines long: sepals ovato-acuminate, ciliate, acute, Z f7 eracliitid Mfes cl & r oS | ig [As :} iE (4 F] <—e =i 1Z cS Ci c Vergloe stel “ NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Sl BORRAGINEE. This, as it now stands in De Candolle’s Prodromus, is a large and complex order, and viewed as a whole is one admirably adapted for giving scope to disquisitions on natural affinities and what ought to constitute the limits of natural orders, and especially on the value we ought to assign to the characters we select for their circumscription. Such being the case it has naturally given rise to considerable difference of opinion, among Botanists, on these subjects; some agreeing with De Candolle in viewing the whole as one order, but divisible into several tribes or sub-orders; others esteeming these tribes as entitled to rank as distinct orders, but disagreeing as to the genera that ought respectively to belong to each. Ina word, it’'threatened to become a chaos, when the elder De Candolle under- took its revision for his immortal Prodromus. Aided by rich collections and with the opinions of all his predecessors before him, he finally arrived at the conclusion that three orders, which others had constructed, formed but one, which he thought could not be divided. Under this conviction he reunited the separate parts under one ordinal name, but still retained them so far distinct, as to constitute tribes or sub-orders of them. In this distribution, I am quite prepared to follow him and feel all but certain that, for the future, others will do the same, as even then, it is not more complex in its composition than Loganiacee or Verbenacee. But supposing that in this | am mistaken, and that it is divided, then J think it must be broken either into two or four orders, not three, as has hitherto been done. The higher ranges of the Neilgherries furnish representatives of three of these tribes, the fourth, Cordiew, I have not seen at any considerable elevation. The three accompany- ing plates only represent two of these tribes, two of them belonging to one, but they repre- sent extreme forms, the first forming the type of the tribe Ehretiew, the second the extreme genus forming the transition to Heliotropee and in some of its species scarcely distinguishable ; the third appertains to the tribe Borragee which more properly con- stitutes the European division of the order, distinguished. from the other two by the ovary, and fruit, aided by the position of the style. In the former it springs from the top of the ovary, in the latter it descends between the carpels and seems to be a prolonga- tion of the pedicel of the flower, round the base of which the carpels, or cells of the ovary, are placed. : Viewed as a whole, the order, like those above-mentioned, is complex, but upon the whole, though presenting great variations of form, natural. For example, we find among its species handsome trees, low shrubs, and some very humble herbaceous plants, thus furnishing all forms of vegetation, but still a family likeness is seen to pervade the whole. In its geographical distribution it occupies a wide range, extending from the equator to either polar circle; but in that it is not singular. The flowers are generally bisexual, but sometimes in Cordiea dioicous, usually they are quite regular, but in some of the species of Borragee they show a tendency to irregularity in the form of the corolla, but even in the most irregular, there are 5 stamens. The ovary, as seen in a cross section, is four-celled, but composed of only two carpels, the edges of which are folded in and bearing an ovule on each edge. As the fruit approaches maturity they become hard and nut-like, and in the tribe Borragex separate from each other, leaving the remains of the style adhering to the base of the flower. ¥ 82 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. This last forms a distinction so marked from the preceding sections, and there is moreover a difference of habit, that it might well enough entitle it to rank as a distinct order, but the rest are better kept together as one. The differences between Cordiez and Ehretiez is much insisted on by many Botanists, and are no doubt considerable, but cer- tainly not so great as we find between the different tribes of Verbenacezx. As regards properties, they are not of a high order. The Cordias and Ehretias some- times attain sufficient size to furnish timber. The roots of a species of the latter are used by the Natives as a substitute for Sarsaparilla, and some of the herbaceous forms are used medicinally, but possess no active property. A few of the European species are admitted into the flower garden as ornaments, among which is the little Forget-me-not (Myosotis palustris) a species of Borragao and an Echium, but the finest of all is the fragrant Heliotrope, H. Peruvianum, now so common on the Hills. EHRETIA. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes valvate in estivation. Corolla salver-shaped, or somewhat wheel-shaped, that is, the tube either long, cylindrical, or very shortly sub-campanulate, lobes ovate, imbricating in estivation. Stamens 5, filaments awl-shaped, anthers ovate, 2-celled. Style filiform, 2-cleft ; stigmas headed or acute ; ovary 4-celled, with a pendulous ovule in each. Berry fleshy or dry, sometimes with 2 two-celled, or 4 one-celled nuts, or sometimes all united into a single 4-celled nut, seed pendulous; albumen sparing or none; embryo axile, radicle cylindrical, about as long as the cotyledons. Shrubs or small trees: leaves alternate or fascicled, entire or serrated: flowers usually corymbose: corolla white. De Candolle describes 58 species of this genus distributed under four sections. These sections are so far dissimilar from each other, that he asks, at the conclusion of his generic character, whether the enus might not be divided into as many genera as it now has sections. I certainly cannot answer the question, but I do know that the species of some of the sections are very unlike those of the others, and, without close scrutiny, such as one would not readily suspect belonged to the same genus. ‘The one here given is barely entitled to a place in this book, as I do not recollect of having seen it above Coonoor, and [ am not quite certain of having found it even so high as that. It is imtroduced as assisting to illustrate the differences above adverted to, in the remarks on the order. The species, if this is indeed Roxburgh’s plant, is rather widely distributed as the-specimens from which the species was first named were obtained from the subalpine jungles of the Norther Circars. Eureria Levis (Roxb.), arborious, glabrous: to -15 inches long, axils of the vein sometimes hairy leaves petioled, from oval to oblong lanceolate, acu- or furnished with a gland: flowers subsessile, secund ) : bs on “humerous circinate spikes: drupes about the axillary, dichotomously many-spiked: pedicels and size of a large pepper-corn; red when ripe, eeply 5-cleft calyx slightly hairy: corolla rotate, eilgherries, on the eastern slopes, flowering dur- lobes reflexed : stamens exserted.—Leaves from 3 to ing the cool season, December and January. 6 inches long, from 1} to 3 broad; petiols from f TOURNIFOURTIA, vals genes Erect or scandent, herbs and shrubs ; leaves alternate, petioled, entire, rarely, nearly opposite or sessile ~_ spikes with the flowers all turned one way, ebracteate, often cymose ; corolla white or Aithie@ 7) voanginete’ 159 beoruee : ouugined GO | Y 4 = a | Y\ ; x i ‘ oR ‘G. Lp * E/( ay » Y, ~) 76. S Sa 7Y p09 Ws ww fucualirr {Midd TL DP PS Ee AEN BAL ANT EERE! OO SSeS PE eek ay Me eS Le eee Hee Tae ee NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 83 This, like the preceding, is a large genus, including 100 species, only 10 of which are said to be natives of India. Of these I have only seen some three or four, and have only studied two. They appear so un- like each other as to lead to the impression that they might be divided into two genera, and actually were so formerly, but are now united, showing that they cannot well be kept distinct. The one here represented I found in woods below Nedawuttim, climbing among bushes to a great extent, but only apparently in fruit, nearly every flower having become the nidus of an insect. The parts still grew, but, on cutting open the apparent fruit, they were found to contain minute caterpillars in place of see Tovurnirortia RETICOSA (R. W.), shrubby, climb- Western slopes of the Neilgherries, below Neda- ing: branches terete and wi e under surface of wuttim, flowering in April, and in Coorg, (Jerdon). of brownish purple veins: peduncles leaf-opposed, mination the nidus of an insect. This species opr dichotomous; branches airanestnigy a spikes corym- most nearly to approach T. viridiflora, but is qui ae circinate : calyx 5-parted, “gt ee hispid: distinct, as sh6wn at once by the comparatively con rolla 4 or 5 times longer than the calyx, hairy, ob- flowers and small calyx. seis Slobed stamens 9, inserted near the base, in- cluded: ee CYNOGLOSSUM. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla funnel-shaped, 5-lobed, tube about the length of the calyx, throat closed with vaulted scales, lobes very obtuse. Stamens within the tube. Stigma entire or emarginate, nuts imperforate at the base, attached round the base of the style, convex or depressed, not furnished with a wing-like margin, either echinate all over, or on the margin only, at maturity separating from the base to the apex, the apex long adhering to the style. Seed hanging, cotyledons obovate, much longer than the radicle. Herbaceous plants: leaves alternate, entire : racemes often spiked, ebracteate or sometimes bracteate: pedi- cels one-flowered ; corolla blue, purple or white. This, like both the preceding, is a large genus, including, according to De Candolle, about 50 species, not one of which, so far as I am aware, is found in the Carnatic, though the accompanying species is com- mon on the elevated mountain regions. On the Neilgherties it is a troublesome weed. The same is the case on the elevated parts of Ceylon. In referring it to the Nepaul species in perference to the Peninsular one, Heynii, I was principally guided by the description of the fruit, which, in this, is bristly all over, in that, round the edges, only with short tubercles on the centre. My impression is that they may be the same species, only slightly modified, but whether or not this be the case, further consideration now leads me to think that I would have acted more judiciously had I adopted the latter name as it seems probable that = roe be that species while it may no ot be the one I have ealled it, though it agrees well with the char- r and description. When young it greatly resembles a Myosotis, and the flowers might readily be rernten? for those of the Forget-me-not, as regards both form and colour. CrnocLossum FurcaTtum (Wall.), stems ramous, ibaa Psa yeti very nearly allied to C. adpressed, pubescent or tomentose, the hairs on the mi um, from h indeed it seems scarcely lower part reflexed: leaves glaucesc nt, adpressed- to afer T I Pee sang . er, this is the true pubescent; radical ones petioled, oval-lanceolate, furcatum. If I have not confounded the two aes acute at ds ine ones sessile, the up thi an extensive range of geographical dis- ones half-stem-clasping, ovato-cordate : ipa pair- tribution, extendin ime on Himalayas os Ceylon, ed, slender, ebracteate, secund, hairy.—Flowers pur- =~ is generally. to be met with in alpine regions ple, scales of the throat two-lobed. throughout that wide extent of country. eilgherries, very common, rising from one to three feet high, and in flower at aiaily all seasons. 84 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. VERBENACEE. ‘This is a large and, as it now stands in Botanical works, ahighly complex order. We find among its species minute procumbent herbs and gigantic trees, flowers so minute that a high magnifier is required for their examination, and others large and showy, some delight- fully fragrant, such as the garden Verbena (V. Peruviana) and many altogether scentless, many simply white or cream-coloured, and others deeply tinged with blue or purple. In their inflorescence and floral structure, we find the species of this order exhibiting similar variations; the flowers being capitate, spicate, cymose, corymbose, panicled or umbelled, and the ovaries with erect or pendulous ovules. No wonder Botanists have found this a difficult order to deal with, and have shown little inclination to grapple with its hetero- geneous combinations. Apparetitly owing to this cause, Schaner’s monograph in De Can- dolle’s Prodromus seems, so far as I am aware, to be the first original composition of the kind. Walper’s had already done good service in collecting together all that had been pre- viously published, but his article differs from Schauer’s in being mainly a compilation, not an autograph work, derived from the examination of original materials In its botanical relations, this order seems to take its place very naturally between Borraginee and Labiatee, the former almost passing into it at several points, while it seems nearly to pass into Labiate, at others, but these so delicately that it requires a Botanist to see them. In its distribution it is more tropically disposed than either of the two orders named, a few only of its species extending so far north as Europe. In the warmer regions of Asia and America, they are most abundant, but a few are found in Africa and Australia. In India they are rather numerous, and some of them of very large size, the teak tree being, however, by far the most conspicuous, and valuable. In Bengal about Jubbulpore there is another large tree which the late Mr. Griffith has described under the name of emigymnia which he considers nearly allied to the teak, and furnishing timber of nearly equal value. Besides those there are several other large Indian trees that belong to this family, such as Vilix alata, arboria, altissima, all inhabiting the forests covering the slope of our higher ranges of hills. The Clerodendrons however are the most showy of our Indian Verbenacex, among which the one here represented is about the most conspicuous. The Indian Verbenas have but little of the fragrance of the Peruvian one now so com- pletely naturalized in the gardens about Ootacamund. The Clerodendron serratum is nearly equally deserving of a place in gardens as an ornamental object, since, with a little attention to pruning and culture it might be made a truly showy plant though, in its wild state, disposed to grow tall and ungainly looking. LANTANA. Calyx membranaceous, small, obsoletely 3—4-toothed, ciliate, covering the fruit and, with its increase, becoming greatly extended and translucent, at length withering away (abolescens). Corolla tubuloso-in- ibuliform, slightly swelling upwards; vere are flat, or inclined, somewhat bilabiate, the upper lip entire or bifid, the lower one lobed. Stamens 4, inserted within the tube of the corolla, didynamous ; anthers 2-celled, opening longitudinally. onary 2-celled, cells with a single erect ovule ; style terminal, short; stigma Mnear or obliquely capitate. Drupe fleshy or succulent with 2 nuts, shell bai, rough, and A Lt a a AY UP CAAT Ee De Je a) yg Y NT Ses . aye t. FF > 12794 = Se ee TT 4 ‘ ss ple ‘: macs ria i mys fs . 1 : ‘ ; * LED i cA Say p d 7, A : “AY tee. Govinder, NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 85 tuberculate, or rarely smooth. Cotyledons thick, radicle inferior, short. Shrubs or under shrubs, stems 4- sided; leaves opposite or verticelled, simple or feather-nerved, rugous; peduncles axillary, usu: usually single ; capitula compact, usually elongating during flowering; calyx as corolla seecaame alah white, orange, red, purple and often changeable. The odour of the plants of this genus is very peculiar, something between the heavy smell of musk and a rather agreeable fragrance. This is a large and to the Botanist most intractable genus. Schauer defines 54 species. Fortunately for Indian Botanists, only one or two are Indian. I suspect we may safely lay claim to two, if any confidence is to be placed in the colour of the flowers and fruit. The one common in some parts of the country on the plains has invariably white flowers and fruit, and is the true L. alba, according to Schauer, and the one here represented, which is not unfrequent on the Neilgherries below Kotergherry, which is Roxburgh’s L. Indica. With the exception of the colour of the flower and fruit, they seem very much alike, but in the hands of a Botanist thoroughly conversant with the distinguishing features of this very natural genus, which I am not, it seems not improbable they might be found truly distinct. The genus is one which so readily naturalizes itself, wherever it is introduced, that it is still a question with some Botanists whether the white-flowered one, which is spread all over India, is truly a native. Dr. Wallich, if [ mistake not, is one of those who question its right to be considered a native. Dr. Royle I know does or at all events did believe it a truly Indian plant. xburgh received his plants, corresponding with ours, from Mysore. In Coimbatore, and also in some parts of Mysore, the white-flowered one, which has also white berries, not purple like the Hill one, is very common, and very variable. Growing in open ground, it is a low spreading stunted shrub, but if among bushes or in hedges it rises to the height of 10 or 12 feet. This, I have no doubt, would in a circum- stances e Bye same, though I am not sure that I ever saw it assuming those gigantic proport Th e here represented seems well worthy of a place in gardens, and as it thrives Keeuaaneryt in Calcutta, 1 presume it would do the same in Madras. Lantana Iypica (Roxb.), shrubby, straight, 4-sided, hairy: leaves opposite, cordate, serrate, rugous: pe- lous beneath: i. uncles axillary, rigid, owning duncles solitary, axi rter than the leaves : pe eA above: capi hemi rical, spicato- heads ovate: bracts ovate, lanceolate: nut 2-ce elon : bracts ovato-roundish me septs nrvetes Rox. aa ea _ ws Jen of wg exter A co cchaci plant, widely diffused over the Indian Peninsula, flowering during the rainy and cool sea- sons. The plant here i og is certainly agree ot 8, I have therefore ned his name and chara But since the oh * wat printed, I have re rie D. rod. Vol. XI. in which I find it reduced to a synonyme of LZ. alba by Schauer, with the following c L. alba (Miller, &c.), straight, branches virgate and with the peduncles ese d, rough strigose : leaves opposite, short petioled, "elliptic, or roundish, ovate, or sub-cordate ; aceuiieate, coarsely crenato- ones involuera n e pro- of pur ite flowers if the higher ies of the: Neilgherries, the rite rs are usu oured, and look so different fr the plant of the plains, ope one is ciueat led 6 doubt their identity, but on comparison, I could not discover specific mar he by which to distinguish them. CLERODENDRON. Calyx campanulate, rarely tubular, sometimes 5-angled, or somewhat inflated, 5-cleft or toothed, seldom truncated. Corolla funnel-shaped or somewhat salver-shaped, tube usually conspicuously exceeding the calyx, sometimes very long; limb five-parted, the two dynamous ; won 2-celled, cells tudinally. Ovary 4-celled, cells with one pendulous ovule: i on the tube of the corolla, much exserted, sub-di upper divisions a little larger. Stamens 4, inserted Drupe within the enlarged, persistent calyx, baceate, 4~ or by vader 1-seeded, ged 24-lobed, nuts woody, smooth. Seed solitary, pendulous, cotyledons oily, radicle short, inferior. bs, ves opposite or ternate, simple, entire, or rarely lobed: cymes trichotomous, axillary or collected into a leaves terminal panicle. or small trees, Of this genus, Schauer enumerates 87 more or less perfectly described species, and 5 Indian ones of which he only knows the names. Forty-nine of these he had either examined or had no doubt about; of Ww 86 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 23 he felt somewhat uncertain, and marked as species requiring further examination, and the remaining are said to be “species dubiz,” meaning by that, many of them are probably described under other names, but which he cannot with certainty ascertain for want of specimens. Of the 92 species named, 34 a from India, and about half the number from the Eastern Islands and China; Australia, Africa and America contribute the rest. Many are plants of great beauty, “and are prized as conservatory and hot-house plants in English collections, and several have been figured in English Botanica! periodicals. Some of the species are remarkable for the very heavy disagreeable odour their leaves give out when bruised, somewhat similar to that of the well-known green-bug of India. The C. 1nexme which is, or used to be, employed as a substitute for the Privet, as an edging for garden walks about Madras and elsewhere near the coast, partakes of this quality in a very marked degree. In addition to the C. serratum, there is another with pretty large white flowers, not uncommon on the Hills about Coonoor and the slopes below that station, called C. infortunatum in allusion to some supposed unhappy property. The name Cleroden- dron means — big dirteT ae e we have among its species the curious specific names of C. fortu- natum, C. calamitosum, C. infortunatum, though — is no reason to believe them better or worse than their neighbours. "We have again among its species, C. fragrans and C. putre, the latter being described as a “planta fetidissima.” One of the Indian ite is said to be used medicinally by the Natives but Ido not know for what purpose. {In regard to the extent of its geographical oan C. serratum is remarkable, Nepaul, Silhet, Assam, Java, Ceylon, and generally over the Peninsular mountai CLERODENDRON SERRATUM renee ramuli eas A rather common plant, in re woods and sub- drangular, furrowed, and with the leaves glabrou eping jungles. Abundant on the Se aga and leaves opposite or tani ate, pice aah Sa peaoled, ther So teate in open pasture ground, a very con- ovate, oblong or even lanceolate, cuniato-attenuate, spicuous objec entire at the base, acuminate, remotely mucronato-ser- The Fe ti are deep green, the flowers blue, rato-dentate, somewhat shining above, pale beneath: deeper at the apex, toceutiy paler downwards, panicles terminal, raceme-like, whitish, from mealy sometimes with a considerable tinge of rose, whic pale, membranaceous, acuminate, bracts ovate, round- plant. es varies from one to six feet in ish, bracteoles metre cymes two or tikes: tnd eight, rarely so low as the first, or higher than the trifid, loose: calyx cup-shaped, sub-truncated, very las ci 5-toothed : uke of the corolla “églindslesh e than twice the length of the calyx. GMELINA. Calyx cup-shaped, 4-5-toothed, persistent, somewhat enlarged with the fruit. Corolla tubular at the base, greatly enlarged at the throat, ventricosely bell-shaped; limb spreading, bilabiately 4-5-lobed, the anterior one larger, inflexed in estivation. amens 4, didynamous, ascending, scarcely exserted ; anthers 2-celled, attached by the middle, cells distinct, opening pe aa te Ovary 2-4-celled, cells 1-ovuled ; style filiform; stigma equally bifid. Drupe baccate, nut solitary, berry smooth, 4-celled, perforated at the Seed pendulous radicle inferior, Shrubs or Sascuk large trees, branches usually thorny: leaves simple, opposite, entire or lobed; inflorescence cymoso-paniculate, panicles raceme-like or composed 0 short few-flowered decussating cymules, or simply racemed ; bracts often caducous; corolla conspicuous. Drupe —— oblong. This is a small genus of some 10 or 11 species, only 7 of which are defined in Schauer’s iat eg its publication, Sir W. Hooker aeper one, I believe the one here represented, under the nam dii, accompanied by a figure. I have seen neither the figure nor description and therefore Aiea . be his reasons for considering it distinct from Roxburgh’s G. arborea. When I published the accompanying plate in the Icones, I was, as will be seen by the remarks appended to the specific character which accompanied, of opinion that the Malabar plant was not distinct from the Bengal one. I am now quite satisfied that they are different species and most easily distinguished, so easily that I now almost wonder how I then overlooked the palpable difference, even though the same specific character, with the exception of a single word might serve for both, That exception is found in the corolla. In Roxburgh’s plant it is 4-lobed with the larger anterior one emarginate, in ours it is 5-lobed with “ larger lobe entire. But for this difference of structure, I should have hesitated to consider them iS us CN CLUMCHMCAE / / i? 2 Sey. ; YADAV Lf 2) / Re Ly, CAAV IE AAE _ Fa Wt, a L A fs JVI Apna sa tts /V7 rL th “A. PY dE A TAMMIE L a ae oe OME liter ie ; y oct wnt: (GH, VUE p Y Gg’ Va A LY Any Oy) > : NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 87 distiact, but aided by this character, which is shown in Rheede’s plate, I can have no hesitation in adopt- ing Sir William’s name, and accordingly request that the name on the plate be changed from G. arborea, Roxb., to G. Rheedii, Hooker. In transcribing the generic character from Schauer, I have taken the liberty of making some alterations- I have introduced into mine the estivation of the corolla, not alluded to by him. Again I have allowed it a 4- or 5-lobed bilabiate limb, and in place of “seed erect” have said “seed pendulous, radicle inferior” which they really are, being attached to the apex of the cell. I do not understand the principle on which he allows pendulous ovules and erect seed, the attachment of both being the same, unless it be on the theoretical one, that an inferior radicle constitutes an erect seed, however attached. If this is the view on which that mode of expression rests, it seems an erroneous one, as in description facts, not theories, ought to be given, and therefore “radicle inferior” would have been better, as stating clearly what is the case, whereas to call a seed erect which is evidently pendulous, unless guarded by previous explanation, must tend to mislead. Gmeuina Rueepu (Hooxer. G. arborea Roxb. he figures and describes as identical with Rheede’s R. W. Ic. No. 1470) arboreous, unarmed, ramuli Hort. Mal. 1 tab. 41, but as having no affinity with mentose, axillary and terminal raceme-like ; cymules views, but on comparing my specimens with Rox- decussate, trichotomous, few-flowered : bracts lanceo- burgh’s description, can see no reason to doubt their late, deciduous: the acutely dentate calyx, eglan- ba. to the same species, thor re be con- dulose. si A small tree, not unfrequent in oe aga: of oxburgh’s plant, as shown in jungles, and generally distributed in Malabar. J 1 opus iniwitig as ets from a specimen obtained have specific value attached, if the other characters near Coonoor on the Neilgherries, and seems to cor- correspond, the more so, as I among my speci- Hooker has made a new species, under the name of species, and thence that such slight di \ G. Rheedii, of what I suspect can at best be viewed outline of the foliage can scarcely be admitted as o as a variety of this species, that is, he views the plant _ itself affording a sufficient specific LABIATAE. This, after Composite and Leguminosz, is the largest order of dicotyledonous plants, including upwards of 2500 species, and is to the full as natural as the former. Such being the case, its distinctive characters are few and very explicit. In the words of Mr. Bentham, its great Historian, “The order of Labiate is one of the most natural and distinctly-marked of all. The opposite leaves, monopetalous corolla, 2 or 4 stamina, and the free 4-lobed ovarium ; are characters so easily observed and so constantly accom- panying the general habit of the whole series, that, from the time of Linneeus to the pre- sent day but two or three genera have been improperly associated with or separated from it.” He adds, “ its immediate affinities are but few.” So truly is this the case that it may almost be said to be isolated and stand apart from all the orders of its class. Those to which it most nearly approaches are Verbenacee and Borraginee, but still it can scarcely be confounded with either. One genus only, consisting of a single species, seems to fluctuate between this and Verbenacee and, that owing rather to the plant being imper- fectly known (from want of perfect seed), than to the difficulty of drawing the line between well-known plants. In a linear series this order unquestionably vdeesbel wes oieryas end, for, while Verbenacee may perhaps be said to pass into it through Holmskioldia, it passes into no other. In some respects, Borraginee are allied, but in all others they are amply distinct. 88 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. The order is made up of the plants commonly known under the names, Basel, Mint, Marjorum, Thyme, Lavender, Sage, Rosemary, Hyssop, Balm, and many others, some or all of which must be familiar to nearly all readers. Its species are distributed all over the world, from Melville Island to Terra del Fuego, but most abound in temperate regions, which tends to account for their frequency on these mountains, and generally on elevated alpine regions throughout India. Of about 200 species named in Wallich’s list of Indian plants a large proportion were obtained from the Himalayas and Northern Provinces. A few only are natives of the plains of India but some of these are certainly endowed with the property of enduring a high temperature. Being thus alpine in its habits, I have devoted a larger number of plates to the illus- tration of this family than to any of its neighbours, though they too are sufficiently interesting. Botanically considered, this, next to Compositew, is one of the most difficult families with which the Botanist has to grapple, for, being so exceedingly natural, every genus seems imperceptibly to pass into its next neighbour and even the species seem to be almost indefinable, forms of one passing into another by such insensible gradations that one is often disposed to reduce two or three into one, for want of sufficiently tangible distinc- tions by which to keep them distinct. For myself I often felt inclined to do so, on the supposition that some of them must have been taken up from solitary specimens of vary- ing forms, or from indifferent or bad specimens. Such a proceeding, however, ought always to be avoided, unless based on the clearest evidence, and supported by reference to, and comparison with, authentically-named specimens, which are seldom available in India, where there are no herbaria. This cautious course it is desirable to follow at all times, but especially while study- ing families so truly natural as the Labiate, and those who wish to form collections, either for their own use or for friends, should make a point of preserving a considerable number of specimens of each species, and, when possible, selected from several individuals of the species, as affording the probability of securing nearly all the varying forms it is likely to present. As regards the properties of this extensive order much might be said, as so many of them are highly aromatic and appropriated in so many ways to supply the wants, or provide luxuries for the benefit of mankind, but it is not my intention to expatiate largely on this branch of the subject, simply because, so few if any of the native species of the Neilgherry ones are so appropriated. As, however, many of the most useful are already or might easily be introduced, I cannot altogether pass the subject in silence, and shall therefore devote a few lines to its consideration. When the leaves, &c., of a labiate plant are closely looked at they will be found to contain numerous little reservoirs of oil which, when bruised, for the most part give out a fragrant aromatic smell, and communicate to the tongue a pungent sensation and aromatic flavour. It is in this oil that the properties of these plants principally reside. Hence their aromatic properties, and hence also, their being generally destitute of any deleterious qualities. Some, however, are said to combine tonic and astringent powers in addition, and as such have been beneficially prescribed in cases of indigestion and loose- ness consequent on imperfect assimilation of food, and also in cases of low fever, pro- ceeding from debility. But their principal medicinal use is as carminitives in flatulent colic, for which purposes various species of mint are greatly in repute. Peppermint is NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 89 much esteemed in such cases, but Spearmint and Pennyroyal are also in great request at Home, hence the frequent use of mint tea by invalids, especially in the country, where domestic medicine is much resorted to. Lavender oil, obtained from the Lavandula vera, is also in great esteem. It forms the basis of the well-known Spirits of Lavender. Of the very numerous species of sage, only one or two seem to be used medicinally, namely, the officinal or garden sage. ‘The Indian sage, which has similar properties, has been separated to form a distinct genus, under the name of Meriandra. It grows freely at Ootacamund, and might be cultivated to any required extent as a substitute for the true garden sage. The Rosemary is another plant deserving attention. In medicine it has been employed as a cephalic, for the relief of headache, but is principally remark- able for its power of promoting the growth of hair, “it is in fact what causes the green colour of the best pomatums used for that purpose,” Lind., and an infusion of it keeps the hair in curl during damp weather. ‘The patchouli or Pucha-pat, of which large quantities are exported from Penang for stuffing mattresses and pillows, is a species of Pogostemon. Its strong smelling leaves are supposed by the Natives to keep off contagion and prolong life. It is now largely consumed in Europe. The Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) is a popular and useful remedy at Home, for coughs and more severe forms of cold, by restoring the tone of the stomach and allaying irritation: for these purposes it is prescribed in form of infusion and lozenges. The Prunella vulgaris, a native of the Hills, is pre- scribed in domestic medicine as a febrifuge. Of the Indian Labiates the Ocima or Base are used for similar cases as those for which mints are prescribed in Europe. The most extensive consumption, however, of the plants of this family is not medicinally, but in cookery, under the name of “sweet herbs,” for flavouring cooked dishes and sauces, and in perfumery, while many are cultivated for their beauty as garden ornaments, especially the sages. PLECTRANTHUS. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, teeth equal or the upper one larger; enlarging with the seed and then declining, straight, incurved, or inflated with the teeth equal or variously 2-lipped, sometimes erect, tubular, or campanulate, equally 5-toothed. Tube of the corolla exserted gibbous above the base, or-calcarate, then abruptly declining (declinato defracto) or nearly straight; throat equal or rarely inflated, the upper lip 3-4 cleft, the lower one entire, often longer concave. Stamens declinate, didynamous, the lower ones longer ; filaments free edentulate ; anthers ovate, reniform, cells confluent or rarely somewhat distinct, divaricate ; ‘style 2-cleft at the apex, lobes about. equal, subulate, with minute terminal stigmas. Herbs, undershrubs, .or shrubs. Racemes terminal, simple or ramous; verticillasters lax, many-flowered, usually producing cymes on each side, rarely contracted into dense verticillasters. Benth. The essential character of the genus is comprised in these few words : “Inferior lobe of the corolla elongated, concave. Calyx of the fruit dentate, not spiny, mouth open. Filaments free.” By this last mark it is distinguished from Coleus, which it sometimes much resembles, in which the filaments are united, or monadelphous, at the base. Wipes oe ¢ t extent, including, as it now stands in De Candolle’s Prodromus, 65 species, natives are but varieties. The banks of:streams ; it is, if possible, still more common on some of the higher range In: such: situations, when sheltered by adjoining woods, 90 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. flowers are too small to attract the notice of cursory observers, but when looked into with the aid of a mag- nifier are not deficient in beauty, being finely speckled with red spots, on a white ground. The calyx, too, is spangled with bright resinous glands, The specimen represented is, for the convenience of space, taken from a small plant, or may be merely a side branch. The figure in the upper corner is the tip of a branch further advanced to give some, though an imperfect, idea of what the plant becomes when every branch has become similarly developed. { have not heard of this plant being applied to any useful purpose, but, as it possesses the usual properties of the family, I imagine some use might be found for it. The scent it exhales is so strong that I have heard it represented as quite overpowering. I was not myself sensible of this effect which therefore must be attributable rather to individual sensitiveness to strong smells than to any peculiarity of the scent. Prectrantaus Wientn (Benth.), herbaceous, erect, ramous: leaves petioled, broadly ovate or rounded, acuminate, cordate at the base, smoot i escent; the inferior floral ones ; i nd bra mem- anaceous, rotundato-spathulate, shorter than the peduncles and pedicels: panicles owered: fructife es from one to two inches long or, on young, luxuriant plants, larger, usually longish, acu- minate ; serratures obtuse or acute: panicles large, loose: flowers white, speckled with red points, tube ascending, 4-lobed, each lobe marked with two red pots at the base, the inferior narrower, longer, con- cave. Stamens free, exserted. Neilgherries and Pulney Mountains, frequent, flower- ing during the autumnal months. The small size of the flowers prevents this from becoming the garden favourite which it deserves to be. e specimen selected by the draughtsman is rather too young to i i specific characters. It nguished by Mr. Bentham from P. serophula- on the one side, and P. striatus, on the other, extensive series of specimens before me, from different stations, and authentic specimens of all is disti rioides, the three species to compare, I find 1 cannot unrav of the corolla about as wide as long, the upper lip m. ANISOCHILUS. Fructiferous calyx ovate, suberect, the base or middle inflated, contracted above ; limb either bilabiate, the upper lip incumbent on the truncated lower one, closing the calyx, or obliquely 5-toothed, the upper one longer, incurved or incumbent. Tube of the corolla slender, abruptly bent beyond the calyx, throat dilated, upper lip short, obtuse, 3-4-cleft, the lower one elongated, concave. Stamens 4, filaments free, edentulate, style subulate at the apex, equally bifid. Hypogynous disk lobed, the posterior lobe often higher than the ovaries. Herbs or (undershrubs ?) verticillasters, densely imbricated, forming ovate, oblong, or cylindrical spikes. Floral leaves bract-like, caducous, shorter than the flowers, or rarely the upper ones longer, form- ing a terminal tuft. Essentian Caarscrer.—Lower lobe of the corolla elongated, concave, upper lip of the fructiferous calyx incumbent on the lower, or the inflexed teeth closing the mouth. Of this genus Mr. Bentham describes eight species, six of which are natives of the Indian Peninsula. The following species are not among them. This addition raises the number to ten, but certainly does not take all in, there being still one or two undescribed species in my collection. As in most of the other genera of this order, their discrimination is very difficult, partly owing to the striking family likeness which runs through the whole, and partly to their liability to'run into variations according to the kind of soil in which they happen to grow. The grand distinguishing feature of the genus, is the dense inflorescence and the peculiar way in which the mouth of the fructiferous calyx is closed with the detlexed upper lip. Where these occur, there can scarcely be any hesitation in regard to the genus. The species, as already said, are not always so easily made out, Anisocnitus purPurREUM (R. W.), stem procum- pilose, about the length of the cal corolla erect, under entire, deflexed: stam der lip of the fractiferous calyx minute, upper larger, deflexed, 3-toothed. eilgherries, on the eastern slopes, about Coonoor, on large stones covered with vegetable earth, flower- ing February and March. The specimen selected by the draughtsman is defec- tive, as not showing the general habit of the species, ich is usually, but not always, procumbent, with ‘GR y LAT h “ea Lal iate Ve’ MYM WU oe 4) Bee ew. Z NY . ~ fle : —~ : E i ‘ ST} \ : } hm Gk ; : ne: 4 Vp eS \ | \ } 4 & » ‘te \ . | eee ° { \ i Yee aS a 4 ig Dy = ‘ : ’ . / » ay . A jl A \ - we af Cy x1 +t ~4 N = | — Ss 4 \ wa NE per ' yy y y— ? | J ‘ 2 us 4 . ‘ , ae A [FA }. 4 AN ~ | ng U E sa Af a) 4 ee, f | COW” a - . 7 J i zi c y ty “4 ee LA D,) Co} ‘ 3 A. 4 é es. >» A “Ee } Dumphy, Lit Govendoe, dal. Lyme’ B3 a, ee 3) YAY a Asi may A, NI 3 vo \ : \¥ 45 Dunphy, Luger /G6 Pumptiy, Ah 4 rod fi a Zé i &Z, yD ae | LEGS) / ¢ / VAMcentiMme, M7 ip ths 4 4 Litd Atif CHBLL, Ld: ae - NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 9] ascending or erect branches. The specimen is evi- peduncled, congested on the ends of the branches: dently an erect branch of a very luxuriant plant. corolla tubular, deflexed from the base, 2-lipped ; This is perhaps too nearly allied to the following, but upper lip 3-lobed, the middle lobe larger, emargi- I have kept them distinct, partly on account of the nate, under entire, obtuse: stamens the length of the difference of colour of the flowers, purple in this, corolla: under lip of the fructiferous calyx minute white in that, and partly on account of the unusual upper much larger, entire, round at the apex, deflexed. feature of the marcesent corolla in this, deciduous Sisparah, on the western slopes of the Neilgherries, in the other. on rocky clifts, among long grass, flowering Decem- NISOCHILUS SUFFRUTICOSUM (R.W.), suffruticose, ber and January. Stems apparently annual, from erect, ramous, young shoots and leaves densely vil- two to three feet high, but the roots seem perennial, lous: leaves short, petioled, ovate, lanceolate, pro- as old, withered plants were noticed with young minently veined beneath, when dry deeply reticu- shoots at the base. lated between the veins: spikes numerous, long, POGOSTEMON. Calyx ovato-tubular, equal, 5-toothed, throat naked within. Tube of the corolla incluse, limb 4-cleft, sub-bilabiate, the upper lip trifid the inferior one entire, all the lobes quite entire, about equal, spreading. Stamens four, exserted, straight or somewhat declining; filaments bearded about the middle or naked; anthers terminal, one-celled opening transversely, style equally bifid at the point, lobes subulate. Herbs (or under shrubs ?), Leaves opposite, petioled or entire, dentate or somewhat lobed; verticillasters many- flowered, equal or hat 1, sometimes glomerato-spicate supported by bracts, the spiculea racemoso- paniculate, sometimes loosely approximate in spike-like racemes. Essentran Cuaracter. Anthers from the first 1-celled, sub-globose. The three upper lobes of the corolla approximated, the lower one declining. Stamens sub-declinate. Of this genus 30 species are enumerated, 23 of which are natives of India, and several of the re- mainder from the Eastern Islands. Of the Indian ones five or six are natives of the Neilgherries. The two here given represent two distinct forms, one has naked the other bearded stamens, and one has glome- rate verticillasters the other spike-like racemes, but in both the lower lip of the corolla is scarcely distinct from the u To this genus belongs the Putcha-pat before alluded to, as being so much prized, as a scent, among atives, especially Mahomedans and more recently in Europe The following account of the properties and uses of that plant I extract from a paper by Dr. Pareira no biddings. This lot came from New York, to which place it was said to have been carried from China. The dried tops imported into England are a foot or more in length. The odour is strong and peculiar; I cannot call it agreeable, though some others do, while many persons regard it as disagreeable. “It is somewhat analogous to that of Chenopodium anthelminticum. The taste of the dried plant is very slight. By distillation it yields a volatile oil, on which the odour and remarkable properties depénd. In Europe it is principally used for perfumery purposes. Sachets de Patchouli are sold in the shops. They consist of a few grains of the coarsely-powdered herb, mixed with cotton-wool, and folded in paper. Placed in c. they are said to drive away insects from linen, shawls, &c. An Essence de Patchouli her scents in the preparation of compounded perfumes: a it is used as an ingredient in tobacco and for scent- drawers, chests, & is used by perfumers, principally for mixing with ot for this purpose it is considered very useful. In Indi ing the hair of women.” “ An ingenious writer, in the Gardener’s Chronicle (1849, p. 645), on the odours of plants, remarks— ‘It has been said, by an eminent French perfumer, that the odour of Patchouli was a ‘disgrace to the art; such, however, is the result of fashion, that a year or two ago no lady of ton was perfect unless she was enveloped, as it were, in the fragrance of this plant, the odour of which is very peculiar—a sort of dry, 92 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. mouldy, or earthy smell—not very enticing, ane by description, and much less so in reality. The char- acteristic smell of Chinese or Indian Ink is owing to an admixture of this plant in its manufacture. In the vegetable world it is the most permanent of odours. The origin of its use is this. A few years ago, real Indian shawls bore an extravagant price, and purchasers could always distinguish them by their odour; in fact, they were perfumed with Patchouli. The French manufacturers at length discovered this secret, and used to import this plant to perfume articles of their make, and thus palm off home-spun shawls for real India!” Neither of the species here represented nor indeed any of those I recollect growing on the Hills quite accords with the true Putcha-pat but P. retundatum is that which comes nearest, and I think it probable that some one of the 4 or 5 species indigenous on the Neilgherries will be found, on trial, imbued with its peculiar fragrance. Of course it will be necessary to dry the plant, and I fancy by exposure to the sun, as hay is dried, to bring it out. OSTEMON ROTUNDATUM (Benth.), villous, stem ascending: leaves roundish, poten crenate, truncated or cordate at the base; the er floral ones shorter es a songs, ‘verticillasters equal, distinct (sub-remotis): bracts A low growing plant, somewhat spreading at the base, afterwards ascending, leaves softly villous, racemes 2 to 6 inches long, compact towards the apex, flowers small, white. Sac feeoroeee (Bentham), plo meen 5 stem erect: s broad, ovate, cordat loosely approxi minute: teeth of pote nearly paoen side subulate: p> Rc eS about ie ae of woods, on the Neil- gherries, iacany Th soil, flowering during the rainy and cold Aran MICROMERIA. Calyx tubular, 13 or 15 striated, 5-dentate, teeth about equal, straight or scarcely 2-lipped, throat usually ube villous within. of the corolla equal, ight, naked within, usually shorter than the calyx; limb 2-lipped, upper lip erect, entire, or ekiverpiniite ; lower one rst 3-lobed, lobes about equal, or the mid e one broader, entire, or emarginate. arcuato-connivent at t Stamens 4, didyna e apex, shorter than the corolla or rarely e nectivum often thickened, cells diverging or at length deyaricate, cditnectiv’ adnate. ie the inferior ones longer, votes serted: anthers 2-celled, the co Lobes af the style sometimes equal, subulate, sometimes the upper one shorter the lower elongated, recurved, flattened. Nuts ‘dry, smooth. Under shrubs or ‘herbs ; 4 verticillasters axillary or spicate, rarely cyme-like or sub-panicled. Flowets usually small, purplish or w This is a large genus shee ddcbriitig to Mr. Bentham’s list, 59 species, only two of which are natives of India, the one here represented and another found by Dr. Falconer on the banks of the Hydaspes. Our one has a a very extensive geographical range, the Himalayas from Mussooree to Khas Felix, Abyssinia, Southern Africa, near the Cape, and the ya, Arabia probably Ceylon. The species is interesting to Europeans in India, from its striking resemblance to the ‘wild thyme of Europe, a ati ane oe in the first instance, led to its being described under that name. It is very common on the Hill agen mit sems (Bentham), suffruticose, véry yamous, czs , branches ascending, ent or ilose: leaves adie: ovate, acute, flat or revolute on ‘the ed. labrous, subcordate a t the base; the apes ones shorter than eaewerk verticillasters red: braits equalling the ic icately pubescent, ous within. wer common on the Neilgherries, and always in _ ow growing, very branchy plant, forming dense tufts of matted branches, from 4 to'6 or 8 —- long, the extremities thickly covered with its small, gr cosmetics oe leaves, from among which ddish, blue or pink flowers sae te, ss er s divaricated. Achznia Geited in a cupthsiped “thie J 4a fy Py ee t ae MY p97 fi) 4y/ s «Se 2 bhMEMGIMLOCMER poe! WttAT2 JF y AN er lane ae meee ee « a eneea: eepen tt AA GES te eames eenapemeenth MWA eg F “ De por id ey, f Goes ae ee whe Z MS MpOL OVOP LOMIMMAMMIY | HAA ? iz = a Yihy, Lee ri rer Ff f Y CH / Loto hi) cf 4 i by ; ay) Abt ae £ Cg obhe WOW Speito MEFS of. j / AH WMesdtee’ Liltithey’ AGS Sebbeaniner . SLabiate! 200 \\ 1) \ ut tie , “) "4 4 — > = ys m re : wes N Ly Ms \ aa. y if vo as 1) Ai A ET Bee rainy’? ae yi << ™~ \ SS ARN Oi : ‘ va f wit it D PP FL EES Ss See : pes ~ om 4 e a OE tes ma 2 ¥, was : ta oe, - _yupittteal Fa ON 3 © a : \) - ~ ‘ io . NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 93 PRUNELLA. Calyx tubuloso-campanulate, irregularly, about 10-nerved, and reticulately veined, flat above, bilabiate. the upper lip broad, truncated, shortly 3-toothed, the lower one half bifid with the lobes lanceolate throat naked within. Tube of the corolla large, sub-exserted, ascending, within, near the base, cttulats with scales or hairs; upper lip erect galiate, somewhat keeled above, entire, the lower one 3-lobed dependent the lateral lobes oblong, deflexed, the middle one rounded, concave, crenulate. Stamens exserted, fatnette edentulate at the base, glabrous, shortly bidentate at the apex, the lower tooth bearing the anthers: anthers approximated by pairs under the upper lip, free, two-celled, cells distinct divaricated. Gynobase equal, straight. Style glabrous, bifid at the apex, lobes subulate. Nuts oblong, dry, smooth. Herbaceous plants, verticillasters 6-flowered, densely spicate. Floral leaves bract-like, orbiculate, persistent, equaling the calyxes and imbricated with them. 3 This, though a small genus, is interesting owing to the almost unlimited distribution of the species here given. It seems to be found everywhere, but in Southern India only on the Neilgherries—Europe Africa, Asia, America, and Australia, all have it. In Northern India several stations along the line of the Himalayas are indicated, but the Neilgherries, so far as I am aware, is the only one in the south. This genus was originally called Brunella, derived from the German word brune, pronounced as if written prune, hence it got changed to Prunella, which it bas retained for nearly a century. The younger De Candolle has, to my mind most unnecessarily, restored the old orthography thereby creating some con- fusion which might as well have been avoided, since nothing is gained to science by the change. The word Brune, is the German name of a kind of inflammatory sore throat for the cure of which the infusion and expressed juice were considered effscient remedies, whence the name Brunella, pronounced like prunella. PRUNELLA vuLGaRis (Linn), leaves petioled, ovate This is a very generally distributed plant, being or oblong, entire, dentate, or inciso-pinnatifid: teeth in the language of Mr. Bentham, found “ fere in of the upper lip of the calyx truncated, aristate, or toto orbe terrarum, and is introduced here as a sub-muticous, or rarely sub-lanceolate: corolla from rare example of a plant so universally diffused. a half to twice as long as the calyx. ery common plant by road sides, and in pas- : tures on the Neilgherries. LEUCAS. Calyx tubular or tubuloso-campanulate, striated, straight or recurved at the apex, mouth equal or ob- liquely elongated either above or below, 8- or 10-toothed. Tube of the corolla within the calyx, annulate or naked within, limb bilabiate, the upper one concave, erect, entire or rarely emarginate, very hairy above, the lower one longer, spreading, trifid, the middle lobe the largest. Stamens under the helmet ascending: filaments naked or sometimes pubescent at the base; anthers under the upper lip approximated by pairs, somewhat 2-celled, cells divaricating, confluent. Upper lobe of the style very short, inferior, subulate. Nuts 3, angular, obtuse. Herbs or under shrubs ; leaves entire or dentate, the floral ones conformable ; verticillas- ters sometimes few, sometimes densely many-flowered ; corolla usually white, rarely purplish. This is a large genus, including 48 species, 41 of which are natives of India. Of these 41, ten or twelve, possibly more, are natives of the Neilgherries. A genus so pre-eminently Indian and alpine ought, I believe, to have been more liberally illustrated in this work, but want of space prevented. Two of the Neilgherry ones I have ascertained to be mere variations of one species, there being no appreciable dif- ference between L. helianthemifolia and ternifolia, all the others are, I believe, good species. The species of the genus are very generally distributed over India, and are every where to be met with from the One, L. Zeylanica, is used as a remedy against eruptive diseases by the 94 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. Leucas (Astropon) surrruTicosa (Benth.), | Common in ay “ohn on the Neilgherries, Biinvehas rufo-villous, leafy at the base: leaves ses- A low plant, from 8 to 12 inches high, readily sile, oblong, lanceolate or linear, entire, green, his- distinguished by the leafy base and long, rusty- pid above, whitish tomentose beneath: bracts subu- coloured, almost naked branches, ending in 1 or late: calyx rufo-villous, mouth truncated, teeth short, pose be aang Flowering during the au- spreading. tumnal mon TEUCRIUM. Calyx tubular or campanulate, rarely inflated, 5-toothed, teeth equal or the upper one often broader. Tube of the corolla short, exannulate within, the 4 upper lobes of the limb about equal, or the upper ones longer and broader, sometimes oblong, declining, sometimes very short, nearly erect, the lower one large roundish or oblong, often concave. Stamens 4, protruding between the upper lobes, didynamous, the inferior pair longer: cells of the anthers confluent. Style equally bifid at the apex. Nuts-in most of the species end reticulato-rugose, in a few however with the reticulations scarcely elevated, in ve obliquely attached by the interior side of the base. Herbs or under shrubs variable in habit and inflorescence. This very large genus, including 91 species, only furnishes six Indian ones, and this is i only one that occurs so far south. Mr. Bentham alludes to a specimen from the Neilgherries in DC.’s herbarium as apparently appertaining to his 7. Fortunii, a Chinese plant; I cannot however suppose that specimen dif- ferent from the plant here represented, and, judging from the character only, I should suppose the Chinese plant not specifically distinct from this. This plant is common and abounds in the wood above Belle Vue house (formerly Kelso Cottage), flowering in December and January. Possibly this may not be the true 7’. tomentosum but I see no very obvious difference between it and specimens so named by Mr. Bentham. On this however I do not lay much stress, for I had not the character of the new species before me when naming it, and the two being very like, I might easily have overlooked as mere variations, good specific characters. But to enable those who may take an interest in the question to determine the point for themselves, I give the characters of both species for comparison with the Neilgherry plant. On recomparing the specimens while writing these notes I find the difference of aspect sufficiently marked to give rise to strong suspicions that this plant is not the true 7". tomentosum while it seems to accord well with the character of 7'. Fortunii. The differences are such as almost to satisfy me that 7’. Fortunii is a good species, a point on which Mr. Bentham seems still to entertain doubts. CRIUM TOMENTOSUM (Heyne), suffruticose, Trucrium Fortunn (Benth.), herbaceous, pe erect, branches ios toso- aegiowe : leaves ovate, bevoelies rough: leaves oe petioled, ovate or ob- rou unde t the e, villo Poove’: "tomentoso-pu- long serrulato-crenate, cordate at the base, Be SE bescent, ‘whitish ped eath, te rare ly sub-glabrous : villous, whitish or yellow sh Seheath racemes ra- racemes Sonielatnte semivel? calyx declinate, pilose, mous: "floral leaves wales“ arcely longer than the a the upper tooth broadest. pedicel: calyx declining, ib bilabiate, upper tooth eilgherries, Ps poe on the hill behind Kelso broader, rough, tube of Dag corolla equaling the mpeg = bans As d soil. owerl ing lt the rains. calyx. Cuina.—Forrune. This species as regards As ntly eobspictons plant, from the almost foliage, clothing and calyx appears allied to 7’. quadri- aesa: ante: soils in which it | ecient; attaining farium, as regards inflorescence to TJ’. tomentosum in such —- from Lt 02 ao in nee and, under A specimen in DC.’s herb. From Perrottet gathered the shade of trees, is even higher at. The on the Neilgherries, seems to belong to this species. leaves oy of a pale green colour, sia acquire a This species is distinguished by its hairyness, its whitish hue from the white pubescence with which wrinkled leaves, and its small bract-like floral leaves. they are clothed: pereeye pale rose-colour, or some- It however demands further examination times nearly white ct PRINTED BY P. R. HUNT—AMERICAN MISSION PRESS, MADRAS. WEN g9 ZB Wine ZF Ne Ga : ey ay x af th y ‘ e es ~ " mY Hin (Fes AN Wy) WIN 7 // t/ ff ig Le , i ZDe ie fis f 4 ‘ = hy, Luther he “TAIN ra Lei Atif Mbicog vee é oe VA : Ayugeiaea’ Saliate’ ms 7 A : : oO 2 : : aff? ek Seaceium Si tomentotum | Beye) INDEX TO VOL. II. Se 09 02 9 @® “ED DME OT SD Gt Or he GO © O11 eT be pe CO bo ~ OD bo we Se? WA OS I So GO MET OD © © GQ bo Acanthaceze te ie « 66 eer Wallichii (R. W.) Ae Adhatoda Neilgherrica (Nees) 3 ©Gaul is ae ae = oe — Leschenaut ©. oD) ose latifolia va ) ee ) Gentianacer ae + 73 Gentiana : —_—_—_lobe! ides (R. W = } pedliosliatn (Wall.) © sie Anisochilus puaeronn (R. W. ‘ Gmelina ene ————_ suffruticosum (R. W. Fe —— Rhe edii (Hooker) én Apoeynaceze = + 49 Goldfussia tristis (R. W.) ... ae Ardisia humilis (Vahl. ) «+ eo 33 Halenia P — (Griseb.) ... Asclepiadez ove - 45 Heath tr Rs Asteroide epee oe Helishrysuin i buddleioides D. . a oe Coreeaaiarin (Nees) | 70 Holly tribe aes a Beeolepis -- 48 Tlici eves Kyun > odes ts geeee ———— nervosa (w. ‘and A) - 49 Tix us Bilberry tri veh 2 —— Gardne eriana (R. W a ite ove Blumea a (D. ¢. ) ae — ake Wightiana (Wall.) oes apansiacce sine ae ——— Perrottetiana sere D. C.) Cam: pmo = ail) PEE apoee ma tri ~ a tales onsii : mines ers ara oon poral sn bh Wail.) Se ea a a ow Seetoram. (Alph. D. Cys arissa - 61 ———revolutum — oo wih —— pau cinervia (Alph. D. cee +. 52 Labiate a Carpesium ae — 12 Lan eee aes Ceropegia ciliata (R. W eee toe “ —_—— caleuie (R. W.) 4 fa exh eos elegans (Wall.) ... ow 48 Teptacanths winery (Nees) 3 usilla (W. and A.) 47 wee Christisonia vos € (A) suffruticosa (Benth, eee urantiaca @. W,) 63 Ligustrum a Cichoracee ... . Perro é Cinare we on owe Limnophila nyperieifolia (Bentham) i irsium it eee oe worek prea “ogg pees case Ma * 4 os presi (D. Cs) < 15 Lobelia ] Clerodendron Vor tua wed ver cue bs bee wee —— a 8 excelsa ( ae we ( vompositz ove —— trigona (Rosb. } see Convol 79 Loganiacez seers Convolvulus rufescens (Chotay) .-» 80 Lysimachia (E) Leschenaultii ... | Cynogloss ee li.) 8 esa . See one Cc . 63 ——— Indica (Alph. D.C. + eerie Decaneurum riiieslonann @. Te Meyenia Hawta (Nees) ... ¢ Leeming ss — 7 D. 4 } a niger ns eons ’ TN ymocarpus tomentosa ( icrorhyncus glabra ( i oer Doronicum C; —— = Monosis Wighti é um (Arn.) Moonia Arnottiana (R. W.) pe | Ehretia levis (Roxb.) gen cue ophylla (Arnott) ... 1 Embelia — a (R. Ww) ees M io En a «. 68 ———— eighattions ee W.) 1 us (R. Ww.) +. 69 Myriactis af fllosu (R. W.) eight (D. oy eee A bilanthus (R. Ww.) ) Myrsineac: ju Ericactamee Sc. ies one Be Miyano : 3 Erigeron Wightii (D. C.) ae : - capitellata (Walt) fea ee Eupatoriacese ow 8 ee ae xa sis 56 a sie oes Se . 3 bicolor (Roxb. +. sis OF are 4 Perrottetii (Griseb. oe iter ee ! Olea robusta, (Wail. ere (ee Fagrea Coromandelina (R. W,) 54 Oliv =e 3 THE END. Ophelia ms —— corymbosa (Griseb. ) Ophioxylon ... wise ———_ Bel Pediculari ebesrameaat 2 AEE (Benth. ) Plectranthus Wightii (Benth. ) — rotundatum (Benth. Ee - rpecna (Ben tham) .. ———— Primrose tri =o tie aris (Linn. ) Prana vl n arboreum ra —— aurantiaca (R Ww.) Sapotacez “ Fe Sapota Elingoides Sappodilla Scrophulariacese Senecionidez eis wee aoe wee h. Bolanacess Solan: ase pant (Linn.) .. a eee Storax Strobilanthes Perrottetianus (Nees) ——_———_ sessilis (Nees) ——_—— pulchra Teucrium tomentosum eye) ——— Fortun — th.) .. Tournt Tubulifiore Vacciniacee ve (A) Leschenaultii (R. ——_—— (A) Neilgherrense — rbascum agerstis Alph. EEN mh ay D.C.) Wrightia Wallichii (Alph. D.C.) oer one oon (Wak D.C.) ee reticosa (R. W,) pies W)) bers aee . . . . QO SI Th bo bo b Sad Cr poe od “IIS bo MN OO SO @