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



round, lanceolate or oblong, or linear-lanceolate, base cordate sub-cuneate or 

 obtuse, apex subretuse or emarginate, obtuse, acuminate or acute. 



Flowers sessile or nearly so in the axils of nearly horizontal floral leaves 

 (bracts), 3-6-merons ; bracteoles shorter or longer than the calyx. Calyx 

 1-2 min. long, usually shortly campanulate, slightly longer than broad, teeth 

 small, triangular, acute ; accessory teeth as long as the primary ones, or 

 shorter or longer, or absent. Petals subulate or obovate and subbilobed, 

 or sabrotund, narrowly acute or acute-bilobed, retuse or emarginate, often 

 erose-denticulate, rarely oblong-elliptic-acute, half as long as, or shorter 

 than, the calyx-lobes, rarely as long as the tube. Style half as long or as 

 long as the ovary, or almost absent. 



Capsule normally 3-valved, very rarely 2-valved, hemispheric or broadlj^ 

 ^ ellipsoid. 



There are at least five characters that might be used in classifying the 

 numerous variations which fall under this species : (1) the presence or 

 absence of uninterrupted wings on the stem, (2) the presence or absence 

 of minute stipules on the margin of the leaf near the base, or in the axil 

 itself (cf. Kurz's specimen from Bengal), (3) the size of the coruna, (4) the 

 size and shape of the petals, (o) the presence or absence of minute 

 tubercles on the valves of the capsule, — not to mention the habit of the 

 plant, the shape of the leaves, and the number of the floral parts. We have 

 spent many days in trying to bring order into this chaos of varying char- 

 acters, but our attempts were futile. There might have been some hope of 

 a final success, if some of the characters remained constant at least in the 

 same specimen. You may examine twenty flowers of one specimen and find 

 them agreeing in one particular point, and if you dissect one more flower 

 you are sure to discover that it has developed in a diflerent direction. 



Habitat: Bombay Island . . Bombay Pres. 

 Salsette . . „ „ 



Khandala . . ,, „ 



Igatpuri .. „ „ 



1917, Blatter* Hallberg, 

 No. 3312! 

 VJII. 1917, Blatter ct Hallberg. 

 No. 3313! 3314! 

 VII, 1916, Blatter & Hallberg. 

 No. 3315 ! 

 I, 1917, Blatter & Hallberg. 

 No. 3316-24! 

 IX, 1907, Meebold, No. 8909 ! 



IX, 1907, „ No. 15499 ! 

 VIII, 1892, Herb. T. Cooke ! 

 X, 1908, Blatter, No. 3325 ! 

 XII, 1917, Sedgwick, No. 3450! 



X, 1907, Patwardhan, No. 



1184! 

 X, 1890, Kanitkar ! 



Talbot, No3. 2 ! 

 586 ! 1034 ! 1066 ! 

 XI, 1884, Talbot, No. 1054 ! 

 Woodrow. 

 Ritchie, No. 1750 ! 

 Woodrow. 

 Ritchie, No. 1185. 

 X, 1908, Meebold, No. 10280! 

 II, 1908, Meebold, No. 8235! 

 X, 1908, Meebold, No. 9757 



