28 DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMI A. OiobciHche. 



Found by Dr. Biu linnan in blossom in January in tobac- 

 co fields near Calcutta, adhering- to the roots of" the plants. 



Root fibrous, some portion thereof adhering to the roots of 

 JVicoliuna Tabacum. Stem ramous, with a scale at the ra- 

 mificalions only; from six to twelve inches hio'h, round, 

 hairy, sometimes coloured, thickness varying- from that of a 

 goose quill, to that of the finger ; the lower half branchy, the 

 upper half leaning'. Flowers numerous, round the upper 

 half of the branches, forming dense, sub-clavate spikes, they 

 are pretty large, and blue. Bractes three-fold, one-flower- 

 ed, hairy. Calyx one-leaved, five-cleft, hairy, open to 

 near the base on the inside, where the flower presses on the 

 branch ; divi^iions subulate, half the length of the corol. 

 Corol tubular, villous, the upper lip two lobed, the under one 

 three. Filaments smooth, except just at the base. jJnthers 

 two-lobed, the pairs united by woolly fibres, the lobes end- 

 ing in a sharp hornlet. Germ ovate. Style rather longer 

 than the filaments. Stigma of two, larger, fleshy lobes, with 

 a perforation between them. Capsule ovate-oblong, two- 

 valved, one celled. Seeds very numerous, adhering to four 

 longitudinal ridges on the inside of the capsule. 



2. O. acaulis. Roxh. 



Stendess. Floxcers crowded into irregular heads, imme- 

 diately on the roots. Corol five-parted, X-Acmmte', anthers 

 single, each of the inner pair augmented with a large recurv- 

 ed oval oland. Stigma peltate. 



Found growing on the root of the China sugar-cane, in the 

 Botanic garden at Calcutta, and in full blossom in September. 



Boot, 1 suspect annual ; of many thick, firm fibres, ad- 

 herino- to the roots of the China sugar-cane. Stem none. 

 Flowen numerous, short-peduncled, collected into a large, 

 dense, fa.-cicle, even with the surface of (he earth, very large; 

 colour, a beautiful lively purple. Peduncles short, round, 

 smooth, one-flowered; irac/^'.s, a triangular, fleshy one, em- 

 bracing the base of one or znore peduncles, uniting them into 



