298 xxxn. geraniacejE (oliver). [Oxalis. 



pairs, obliquely rectangular-oblong, somewhat pointed. Flower-heads on very short pedun- 

 cles ; bracts very numerous, aristate, more or less spreading or squarrose, equalling or ex- 

 ceeding the flowers, which are described as " red and white, becoming purple on withering." 

 Styles elongate. Ovules about 3 in each cell. Seeds rugose-tuberculate. 



Upper Guinea. Old Calabar, Thomson ! 



Much resembling 0. dendroides, but the flower-heads more like those of 0. lindsaafolia. 



6. IMPATIENS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 277. 

 (By Dr. J. D. Hooker.) 



Flowers irregular. Sepals 3 (rarely 5) ; 2 lateral small, green ; lower very 

 large, coloured, conical, funnel-, boat- or trumpet-shaped, spurred. Petals 

 3 ; hack one usually erect and orbicular, often keeled or winged at the back ; 

 lateral very variable in shape and size, spreading laterally and hanging down, 

 more or less 2-Iobed or auricled at the base. Stamens 5 ; filaments short, 

 flattened ; anthers connate or cohering over the stigma. Ovary enclosed in 

 the tube formed by the filaments, 5-celled ; stigma sessde, 5-toothed; ovules 

 numerous. Capsule elastically splitting into 5 twisted valves. — Annual, 

 often tender or succulent herbs, rarely shrubby below, or perennial. Leaves 

 opposite whorled or alternate, toothed serrate or crenate ; the serratures or 

 teeth with glandular cilia on their tips or between them. Petioles often 

 glandular as are the tips of the bracts and sepals. Flowers often beautiful, 

 solitary, fascicled, racemose or subumbellate. 



A very large Indian genus, also abundant in tropical Africa, but of which the species are 

 most difficult to preserve, and hence to describe from dried specimens. In the following 

 diagnoses, the 2 small, green, lateral sepals alone are called sepals ; the spurred sepal lip ; 

 the posterior petal standard; and the two lateral wings. 



A. Flowers solitary or fascicled in the axils of the leaves (pedicels rarely collected on a 



short common peduncle). 



a. Lip large, trumpet- or boat-shaped, with a short stout incurved spur. 



* Wings and standard not broader than the orifice of the trumpet-shaped lip. 



Flowers densely fascicled. Sepals minute \. I. bicolor. 



Flowers subsolitary. Sepals broad 2. /. buccinalis. 



** Wings very large, broader than the large boat-shaped lip . . . 3. J. Mackeyana. 



$. Lip with a long, slender, straight or incurved spur. 



* Spur nearly straight, not much longer than the body of the lip. 



Flowers 1J-2J in. diam., hairy 4. I. Burtoni. 



Flowers \-\ in. diam., glabrous . . . h. I. Mannii. 



** Spur much longer than the body of the lip. 

 Stem and leaves below glabrous or nearly so. 



Leaves oblong, crenate, with cilia in the crenatnres 6. /. capensis. 



Leaves lanceolate, acutely serrate 7.1. Jrvingii. 



Stem and leaves below pubescent 8 / Kirkii. 



B. Flowers racemed or umbelled at the end of a long common peduncle. 



o. Lip elongate -conic or trumpet-shaped, gradually narrowed into the short stout spur. 

 * Leaves opposite or whorled 9 / Sakeriana. 



