680 PENTANDRIA MONOOYNIA. Celosia. 



4. C. cernua. R. 



Annual, erect, ramous. Leaves lanceolate, acute. Racemes 

 terminal, cylindric, with long' sterile, ramous, pendulous 

 tails. Capsules operculed, many-seeded. 



A native of the tops of the Rajmuhal hills, where Mr. W. 

 Roxburgh first found it in great abundance wild amongst 

 fragments of a rich iron ore, and from thence sent the seeds 

 to the Botanic garden at Calcutta, where it grows well, and 

 continues in gaudy blossom, during the whole of the cold 

 season. 



Root annual. Stem erect, with numerous, ascending, ra- 

 mous branches, slightly striated, colour from green to a deep 

 liver colour. Leaves alternate, lanceolate, acufe, smooth, 

 entire, from one to six inches long, and broad in proportion. 

 Stipules, or rather the lower opposite pair of leaves of the 

 branches and branchlets often present, and then falcate, as in 

 C. argentea, &c. but I do not think their presence or absence 

 can, in any of the species found in India, be taken info the 

 specific character; for in some plants they are tolerably 

 constant, whereas in others of the same species reared from 

 the same seed no sign of them can be traced. Racemes ter- 

 minal ; the fertile flower-bearing part simple, cylindric, but 

 curved from the weight of the long, pendulous, lovely crim- 

 son, sterile panicle into which they divide, and which gives 

 to this charming species its great beauty. Flowers numer- 

 ous, short-peduncled, before and during expansion of a 

 brio lit, vivid purple colour, but as the seed advances to ma- 

 turity the margins of the scales become pure white, more or 

 less broad. Bractes tapering, acute, one larger under the 

 base of the pedicel, and two on its apex, pressing the calyx 

 laterally, and about half its length. Calyx ; leaflets dagger- 

 pointed, rather longer than the stamina. Nectary ten-part- 

 ed, the five long, subulate, alternate ones are antheriferous, 

 the other five short and incurved over the germ. Stir/ma 

 slightly three-lobed. Capsules; the lid is a little scabrous 



