Xyris. triandria monogynia. 179 



1. X. indica. Linn. sp. pi. ed. Willd. 1. 254. 



Leaves ensiform. Heads globular ; scales round. 



Kotsjiletti-pullu. Meed. Mai. 9. p. 139. t.l\. 



Beng. Cheena ghauza. Dabi dooba. 



Grows on a low clayey soil, over many parts of Coroman- 

 del, and Bengal. Flowering time November and December. 

 Seeds ripen in January and February. 



Root fibrous, annual. Leaves radical, bifarious, straight, 

 sword-shaped, on one edge slit into a sheath for the scape, 

 pointed, smooth; from six to twelve inches long. Scape 

 naked, round, striated, erect, length of the leaves, each sup- 

 porting a round, flower-bearing head. Flowers a beautiful 

 bright yellow. Bractes, or scales one-flowered, orbicular, 

 concave, hard, smooth. Calyx three-leaved, hid within the 

 scale, membranous. Petals three, each supported on an 

 unguis just long enough to raise their expanding-, oval, 

 crenate borders above the scales. Nectary, three filaments 

 inserted, alternately with the petals, round the base of the 

 germ ; apex two-cleft, each division ending in a pencil of fine 

 yellow hairs ; adhering- firmly at the cleft to the edges of the 

 petals, near the apex of the claws. Filaments three, short, 

 broad, erect, inserted on the inside of the apex of the claws of 

 the petals. Anthers twin, erect, united by a continuation of 

 the filament. Germ superior, three-sided. Style length of 

 the claws of the petals, from thence three-cleft. Stigma torn. 

 Capsule three-valved, one-celled. Seeds numerous, attached 

 to a heel down the inside of each valve. 



Obs. The following account of the virtues of this plant I 

 have been favoured with, by the Honourable John Hyde, 

 who informs me that " the natives of Bengal esteem it a plant 

 of great value, because they think it an easy, speedy, and 

 certain cure for the troublesome irruption called ring worms." 

 This accords with what Van Rheede says of it, at page 139 

 of the 9th volume, of the Hortus Malabaricus, viz. Foliorum 

 iuccus cum aceto mixtus impetigini resistit. Folia cum ra- 

 dice oleo incocta contra lepram sumuntur. 



L2 



