164 wight's botanical letters. 



determine : most probably the former. I made a long excur- 

 sion to-day, and among other things got Limonia acidissima 

 in fruit. I have been a good deal puzzled with Tribulus, in 

 consequence of having met with a form, which I at first 

 supposed a new species, afterwards the true T. lanuginosiis, 

 and now I suspect it is neither ; that is, I have never met 

 with a plant altogether corresponding to the character of T. 

 lam/ginostis, in so far as they all have four prickles to the 

 carpels: the new ones corresponded better in that respect than 

 the more common one, and had much more woolly leaves, but 

 on comparing many specimens I could find no line of demar- 

 cation between them ; the cocci in all have four prickles, two 

 large, and two small, which I suspect will be equally found 

 in the Ceylon plant, although not represented in the figure; 

 perhaps then, they may all be referrible to T. terrestris, but 

 on that point I cannot l)e sure, as I have never examined 

 the genuine plant. 



IZth October. — I have re-examined these to-day, from hav- 

 ing seen many plants of the new one ; its flowers are much 

 smaller, the second pair of prickles often wanting, and always 

 smaller than in the common form, but they still require to 

 be more carefully compared. 



Fogonia Mysorensis is very common here. It is a variable 

 plant, the stipules being longer or shorter than the leaves, 

 the leaves 1 — 3-foliolate, leaflets linear lanceolate ; old plants 

 form small procumbent very ramous thorny shrubs like 

 furze, and in this state the leaves are simple ; young plants 

 erect with the leaves all trifoliolate ; in middle aged ones these 

 are 1, 2, or 3-foliolate on the same individual. This fact leads 

 me to suspect that F. Arabica, Mysorensis, and Oliverii, are 



all the same species There is a species of, I think, Zpgo- 



phyllum, very common here, but I have never yet met with it 

 in flower ; apparently a species of Balanites, which has the 

 trifoliate leaves and axillary spines of the genus, but differs 

 from B. JEgyptiaca, in being a small plant in place of a tall 

 one. I found to-day specimens not in flower of a new (•) 

 Solenocnrpvs i it has o!>long ovate, not acuminate leaflets; these 



