404 TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. PlttntugO. 



PLANT AGO. Schreb. gen. N. 186. 



Calyx four-cleft. Carol four-cleft, with border reflexed. 

 Stamina very long. Capsule superior, two-celled, cut trans- 



versely. 



1. P. lspaghula. R. Fleming in Asiat. Re*, xi. 174. 



Annual, caulescent. Leaves linear-lanceolar, three nerved, 

 slightly woolly. Peduncles axillary, naked, simple, length of 

 the leaves; heads cylindric. Capsules two-celled. 



Jsfjaf/oof, the llindee and Persian name, and that by which 

 it is most generally known in Bengal and on the coast of Co- 

 romandel. 



Native place uncertain, but it is cultivated during the cool 

 season. 



Root ramous, annual. Stem, if any, very short, soon divid- 

 ing into three or four ascending-, round, villous branches, 

 which are a few inches in length. Leaves alternate, linear-lan- 

 ceolate, three-nerved, luxuriant in young plants remotely den- 

 ticulate, somewhat woolly, towards the base channelled, and 

 stem-clasping ; length from six to eight inches by a quarter 

 or half an inch broad. Peduncles axillary, solitary, naked, 

 erect, round, a little villous, the length of the leaves. Spikes 

 solitary, terminal, before the flowers expand ovate, afterward! 

 cylindric ; when in seed about an inch or an inch and a half 

 long and erect. Flowers numerous, imbricated, small, dull, 

 white, withering. Bractes one -flowered, ovate, concave, with 

 the keel green, and the sides membranaceous. Calyx four- 

 leaved. Leaflets oblong, ovate, with broad membranaceous 

 margins. Corol ; tube gibbous. Segments ovate, acute. Filth 

 ments oblong, two-celled, four, much larger than the seg- 

 ments of the corol. Germ oblong, two celled, with one seed 

 in each, attached to the middle of the partition. Style rather 

 longer than the corol. Stigma subulate, villous. Capsule cir- 

 cmnseissa,ovate,two-celled. AVW* solitary, ovate-elliptic, con- 

 vex on the outside; concave on the inner, integument single, 



