105 



Stem somewhat shrubby, twining, round, hispid, each hair 

 springing from a reddish-brown papilla. Petioles round, 

 hairy, alaout the length of the leaflets, terminating in a 5- 

 fingered, peltate leaf. Leaflets of unequal size, broadly lan- 

 ceolate, entire, tapering at the base and ending in a rather 

 long, narrow, obtuse acumen, hairy on both sides, but not so 

 profusely as on the other parts of the plant. Peduncles axil- 

 lary, round, papillose, hispid, many-flowered, once or twice 

 dichotomous with a solitary, long, pedicellate flower in the 

 fork: bracteas 2, at each division. Pedicels thickened up- 

 wards, compressed, somewhat ancipitate near the calyx. 

 Calyx ovate, 5-parted, the three outer divisions ovate, con- 

 cave, tapering to a sharp point, very hairy, enclosing the 

 other two, which are smooth, white, and membranous. 

 Corolla bell-shaped, a little longer than the calyx; limb 

 plaited, white. Stamens 5; filaments about half the length 

 of the corolla ; anthers sagittate, after bursting twisted. 

 Pistil : Germen surrounded at the base by a glandular cup. 

 Style filiform ; Stigma 2-lobed ; Capside 4-valved, 4-celled ; 

 cells 1-seeded ; seeds convex, triangular. 



This plant is of rare occurrence in the neighbourhood of 

 Negapatam, being found occasionally growing in dry and 

 sandy soil, where it twines upon the hedges and bushes, and 

 produces flower and fruit during the greater part of the cool 

 season. In its earlier stage, each peduncle seems to bear 

 but one flower, and has two bracteas about the middle of its 

 length ; but from the axils of these bracteas, a branch after- 

 wards springs, which goes through the same process of pro- 

 ducing new branches and new inflorescence. How often 

 this may be repeated, I am unable to say; but I have 

 specimens now lying before me, which exhibit three succes- 

 sive instances of this increase. 



[Were it not that the Conv. pentaphyllus of Linn, and Jacq. 

 Ic. PL Rar. is an American species, I should have been 

 inclined to consider, as Dr. Wight was disposed to do, our 

 present plant as identical with it, so closely are they allied. 

 Be that as it may, we are certain that it is the same with 

 Roxburgh's C. hirsutus, (not of Bieberstein,) and the C. 



