422 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



minutely echinulate (No. 1760), or cylindrical, longitudinally ribbed, 

 obscurely rugose (Nos. 1758,1762). 



Localities : Bombay Island (Nos. 1767, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1764), Penn, 

 Colaba District (No. 1758), Salsette (No. 1759). — It is fairly common about 

 Bombay, flowering at all times of the year, but chiefly during the rains. 



We have never found a plant with the corolla bluish-white as given by 

 Hooker ex Griffith. 



Vandellia laxa, Benth.- — This species was found on the slope of the High 

 Wavy Mountain, Madura District, alt. 3,000 feet (No. 359). Hooker makes 

 it a variety of V. scabra, Benth. (Fl. Brit. Ind. IV, 281), and he is of 

 opinion that it deserves not even varietal rank. He adds that the stem is 

 dichotomously branched. 



We think that 7'. laxa, first described by Bentham, should be retained 

 as a distinct species. The inflorescence is difterent from that of V. scabra, 

 and the fruiting calyx is about twice as long as the fruit. 



Bentham (in DC. Frodr. X (1846), 414) describes the inflorescence of 

 Y. laxa in these words : " The racemes are slender, the pedicels elongate, 

 remotely falsely verticillate. The racemes, especially the terminal one, 

 contracted into a 4-6 flowered umbel ; a branch arises below the umbel, 

 which is again umbelliferous at its apex." This is exactly the mode 

 of branching in our specimens. 



We add the following characters in order to complete the description : 

 Branches up to 25cm. long, angular, sparingly strigose-hirsute, very slender, 

 internodes up to 4.5cm. long. Leaves up to 1cm. long and almost as broad ; 

 tip rovinded, obtuse or subacute, margin coarsely serrate ; upper surface 

 and nerves beneath sparmgiy hirsute. Pedicels slender, strict, erect ; 

 reaching 12mm. in fruit. Corolla with a 3-lobed lower and emarginate 

 upper lip ; lobes of lower lip subequal, orbicular. Filaments compressed ; 

 anterior stamens with rather long filaments, which have rounded auricles 

 at the base ; posterior stamens included, filaments very stout, subulate ; 

 anther-cells subequal. Style glabrous, stigma bilamellate. Capsule sub- 

 globose about half the length of the enlarged strigose-hirsute calyx- 

 segments which attain 5mm. in fruit. ( Y. scabra, Benth., has the capsule 

 equalling the calyx-segments. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. IV, 281). 



TORENIA, L. 



Torenia hirtella, Hook, f., Avas found to be common on the High Wavy 

 Mountain, Madura District, on the slope as well as on the plateau, 3,000- 

 4,500 feet (Nos. 504, 1549, 1550). 



In order to complete Hooker's description in the Fl. Brit. Ind. IV, 277, 

 we add the following : — Branches difluse, very slender, up to ^m. long, 

 internodes up to 8cm. long. Leaf-margins and nerves below slightly 

 strigose. Corolla pale lilac, each lobe of lower lip with a large purplish- 

 blue spot, throat bluish. Stamens purple. The tooth at the base of the 

 longer filament is as long as the filament itself, stout, cylindrical, obtuse, 

 glandular. 



The Fl. Brit. Ind. gives 2,000 feet as the maximum altitude for the 

 species in Ceylon. 



Torenia cordifolia , Roxb., seems to be rare in the Bombay Presidency. 

 We have found only two specimens. One is from the Kanary Caves, 

 Salsette, Aug. 1917 (No. 1551), the other from Kasara Ghats, Sept. 1917 

 (No. 1652). Both specimens have a lilac corolla, with the throat and 

 midlobe of lower lip purplish. — Cooke, Fl. B. Pres., describes the leaves as 

 glabrous, while Graham, Bot. Mag. t. 3715, has them hairy above, glabrous 



