9. Stigma and Indusium in flower. Lobes of 

 stigma have grown and project beyond the Indusium. 



10. Horizontal section of fruit. 



11. Vertical section of fruit. 



12. Section of stone of fruit showing the seed. 



13. Cross section of the seed, a. Albumen, b. 

 Cotyledons. 



14. Embryo. 



15. Diagram of flower. 



Figs. 1 — 9, magnified. 

 Figs, 10—14, natural size." 



r 



The figure and preceding description 

 communicated by Dr. Stocks. 



tough texture, sometimes appearing to spring in pairi 

 (pseudogeminate), with the upper and lower surfaces 

 alike. Flowers dioecious, fasciculate, with the pe- 

 duncles bending downwards. Male plant— Calyx 

 shorter than the tube of the corolla. Stamens as 

 long as the tube. Ovary rudimentary with no style. 

 Female plant. — Calyx as long as the tube of the Cor- 

 olla. Stamens rudimentary with exceedingly short 

 filaments and with anthers effete and void of pollen. 



1616. "PuNEERiA coAGULAKs (J.E.S.), this plant is 

 recognised at a considerable distance by its dusty ash- 

 were both grey hue, which in the young leafy shoots has a bluish 



tinge. There is not a shade of green in the whole 



1614* ViNCEToxicuM Arnottianum (R. W. con- 

 trib.), suffruticose, climbing ; branches terete, glab- 

 rous: leaves succulent, short petioled ovate or 

 oblong-oval, obtuse or emarginate, upper ones on 

 the floriferous ramuli often lanceolate, acute or mu- 

 cronate: umbels sub-sessile, many-flowered: flow- 

 ers dark purple: corolla clothed within with white 

 pubescence: stamenal crown deeply five-cleft, lobes 

 as long as the gynostigium with a broad sinus 

 between: stigma apiculate. Beluchistan, Stocks. 



plant It forms ramous bushes 1-2 feet high, flowering 

 in February and ripening its fruit in March." J. E. S. 



The berries of this plant are used in Beluchistan 

 to coagulate milk for cheese making. Two or three 

 of them are rubbed up with a little milk which is then 

 stirred into the whole quantity to be coagulated. Its 

 generic and specific names are derived from this pro- 

 perty : Puneer (cheese), hence, Ptmeeriay and coagu- 

 lanSf from its quality of coagulating tfie milk to 

 make cheese. 



I am indebted to Dr. Stocks for my specimens 



This species was first taken up from rather im- and a short memoir, by him, on the plant, published 

 perfect specimens, whence some alterations have in the Journal of the Bombay branch of the Royal 

 here been found necessary to adapt the character -••-•'* 

 to the species. I am indebted to Dr. Stocks for 

 the specimens from which the drawing and revised 

 character were taken. 



1615. Pedalium murex. (Linn.) 

 Coimbatore, and generally over Southern India, 

 especially near the sea coast, and in light moist sandy 



soils. 

 This plant is figured by Rheede (Hort. Mai. 10, 72) 



and by Burmann (Fl. Ind. tab. 45), but in no later 

 work that I am aware of. It is however well 

 described by both Roxburgh and De Candolle. 



The fresh plant has the property of quickly ren- 

 dering water or milk in which it is immersed, thick 

 and mucilaginous, without however altering the 

 taste or colour of the liquid. Thus prepared, and 

 sweetened with a little sugar, the infusion forms a 

 very agreeable and cooling drink, much used by the 

 Natives to relieve the heat of urine of gonorrhoea. 

 Roxburgh tells us that venders of butter-milk are 

 in the habit of diluting their merchandize with 

 water and then thickening the mixture with this 

 plant, which makes the adulterated article seem 

 rich and of the best sort 



#• 



Pur^EERiA. (Stocks.) 

 LCTER. Flowers dioec 



abor- 



Asiatic Society from whence I have copied the gen- 

 eric character and above points of information. 



1617. Capsicum fastigiatum (Blume), shrubby, 

 branches 4-sided, fastigiate, diverging, pubescenti- 

 scabrous: calyx of the fruit sub-cylindrical, truncated : 

 fructiferous peduncles sub-geminate, erect: berry 

 oblong, cylindrical, straight: leaves oval or lanceolate, 

 acuminate at both ends, minutely serrulato-ciliate. 



Bolumputty jungles, near Coimbatore, flowering 

 and in fruit from August till October, perhaps longer. 

 A small ramous herb from one to two feet high. 

 Capsule, when ripe, deep red. The fruit is very 

 pungent, but the Natives do not use it when they 

 can get the common chillie, assigning as their reason 

 that it is unwholesome. 



1618. Phelipjea RAM05A (Mycrs.) scape ramous, 

 sparingly scaly : flowers ranged in loose elongated 

 spikes : calyx 4-toothed, teeth ovato-triangular, acu- 

 minate. Corolla tuberculoso-fiinnel shaped; lobes 

 of the lips ovate, obtuse, nearly equal, ciliate : style 

 slightly glandulose ; stigma retuse, 2-lobed. 



am indebted to Dr. Stocks for my specimens 

 of this plant, which were gathered in wheat fields, 

 but the station is not mentioned. This species, 

 though a very widely distributed one, has not yet, 

 I believe, been found in India; it is not, therefore. 



tion. Calyx 5-cleft, increscent but not inflated in by rights, entitled to a place here, but is introduced in 

 fruit. Corolla campanulate, with the divisions of the connexion with the remarks on the sectional and gen- 

 limb valvate in aestivation, and bent inwards where eric characters of this order given under No. 1420. 



their tips join in the centre. Stamens five, inserted 

 near the bottom of the tube of the corolla with tufts 

 of hairs on each side of the filaments at their points 

 of origin. Ovary 2-celled with many-ovuled pla- 

 centas. Style simple, stigma bilamellate. Berry 

 tightly invested by the calyx; its apex uncovered. 

 Seeds ear-shaped. Embryo bow-shaped or nearly 

 ring-shaped, in the midst of fleshy albumen, with 

 linear cotyledons and a long radicle. 



An under-shrub, most densely covered with minute 

 stellate hairs, arranged in tufts which form a short 

 ash-grey covering over the whole plant. Leaves 

 lanceolate-oblong, unequal at the base, of a thick 



1619. STROBiiiANTHEs RUGOsus (R.W.), shrub- 

 by, erect, ramous; ramuli sparingly pubescent, 4- 

 sided, furrowed, angles blunt; older branches glab- 

 rous: leaves broad ovate, acuminate, coarsely 

 crenato-serrated, decurrent on the petiol, rugous, hir- 

 sute on both sides : spikes globose, axillary, simple 

 or compound; when compound peduncles trifid or 

 sometimes twice trifid : lower bracts remote, sterile, 

 reflexed, all obovate, rounded above, glabrous ; brac- 

 teoles none : calyx lobes lanceolate, subcuneate : 

 corolla scarcely exceeding the bracts, capsule 4- 

 seeded, upper pair sometimes aborting. 



( n ) 



E 



