mapa 
NOTES ON THE ROOGEE OF KUMAON. 355 
to the outside of the others. This is particularly necessary, considering 
the thick fleshy nature of the filaments, and indeed some abnormal de- 
placement must be expected in a plant, the whole of whose vegetative 
organs indicate a general state of plethora. 
The ovary and fruit are precisely those of the Russian Megacarpea, 
excepting some slight specific variations in outward form. Dr. Lindley 
informs me that in a very young bud he found evidences of two abor- 
tive cells, one on each side of the fertile ovary. This is not unlikely 
to happen, but I have not been fortunate enough to discover any traces 
of them in any of the buds I opened. 
In describing the seed of Megacarpea, both Meyer and Ledebour 
make use of the terms “radicula ascendens." This expression, though 
perhaps theoretically correct, may, under the circumstances, lead into 
error. The ovules and seeds are not in this genus, as in the majority 
of Crucifere, pendulous; but the funiculus is either nearly horizontal, 
or more commonly ascending, as well as the ovule and seed. The ra- 
dicle commencing in M. laciniata from the extremity of the embryo 
furthest from the hilum, in the M. polyandra much nearer the upper 
end of the embryo, is accumbent along the upper edge of the cotyle- 
dons, and its extremity is turned downwards towards the hilum. 
In the specific comparison of the two Himalayan Roogees with the — 
Russian species, we observe the same thick roots and general character 
of habit, pinnately divided leaves, and paniculate inflorescence, and all 
of them flower in the early spring. The M. laciniata, inhabiting the — 
dry and bare steppes of Southern Siberia, is seldom above a foot and a — 
half high, with a dry and hard stem, the stiff divaricate branches of 
the panicle becoming spinescent at the tips; the whole plant is then - 
easily broken off on a level with the ground, and, laden with its pods, 
is rolled over and over by the wind, and swept over hill and dale to — 
immense distances. The two Roogees, M. polyandra and M. bifida, — 
natives of the valleys of the Himalayas, at great elevations, are tall, — 
Vigorous, and succulent, attaining six or eight feet in height, and | * 
showing in every part a great redundancy of nutrition. Their flowers oe 
differ most from those of the Russian species in their petals and sepals, 
both of which are of a petaloid texture and a yellowish-white colour; 
both are broad, almost orbicular, the petals rather smaller than the — 
sepals. In the M. laciniata, on the contrary, their colour is of a red- 
dish-violet, the sepals somewhat herbaceous and oblong, the petals 
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