240 NOTES ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 



Hab. Abundant on the sandy coast southward from Colombo 

 with other sea-shore plants, and conspicuous from the bright 

 colour of its foliage. Leaves often nearly 5 in. long, more or less 

 bullate ; petioles not ^ in. long. Pedicels about ^ in., soon dis- 

 articulating at the bract-axil. Flowers ^ in. diam. 



This I should have regarded as a maritime variety of T. 

 ostJimatica, but for the different form of the coronal processes. 

 These in that species are very abruptly narrowed into a short 

 filiform point, instead of gradually tapering off, as in T. flaca. The 

 other points of difference are the complete glabrosity, shorter 

 peduncles and pedicels, larger flowers of a different colour, and 

 narrow follicles. Thwaites' var. (jlahra of T. asthmatica (C. P. 1849) 

 may be this plant in part, but the specimens here are insufficient 

 to decide. Hooker (Fl. Brit. Ind., iv., p. 40) refers it to T. pauci- 

 flora W. & A., but with some doubt. 



Christisonia (Oligopholis) Thwaitesii Trim. — C. unicolor 

 Thw. Enum. PI. Zeyl. p. 222, pro max. part., ? Gardner. — C. neil- 

 f/herrica Hk. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. p. 322, pro parte, non Gardn. — 

 Flowering-stem short and stout, bearing 3-8 large flowers on rather 

 long thick pedicels from axils of obtuse or rounded scales, not 

 crowded ; pedicels naked, with no bracts beneath the flowers ; 

 calyx over 1 in. long, glabrous, completely closed in the bud and 

 produced into a point, so that the bud is beaked, semispathaceous, 

 dee];)ly 2-cleft, the lips usually more or less deeply cut into 2 and 8 

 teeth ; corolla large, infundibuliform, curved, glabrous externally, 

 uniform pale yellow; stamens scarcely exserted; filaments glabrous; 

 both pairs of anthers coherent, the upper with short, the lower with 

 very long spurs projecting forward; style a little longer than sta- 

 mens and more exserted ; stigma large, broad, crescent-shaped or 

 reniform ; placentas large, fleshy, meeting in the centre, and 

 ovaliferous throughout, except where in contact. 



Hab. Palagalla, Oct. 1853. (C. P. 2971 in Herb. Perad.). 



"Whole plant of a bright pale yellow colour, the flowers paler," 

 quite glabrous, the rhizome short and stout. Flowers li-2 in. long, 

 the corolla decidedly 2-lipped. I have not seen this living ; it is 

 described from good herbarium-specimens and an excellent coloured 

 drawing. Thwaites' short description of C. unicolor [loc. cit.) was 

 clearly principally made from this plant, but the old coloured 

 drawing, which was the whole foundation of Gardner's species, 

 seems to have been also used. This old figure is very unsatisfactory, 

 but, as it shows two bracts beneath each flower, it is apparently a 

 different species, and may be perhaps rightly placed under C. 

 neihjherriva, as done by Sir J. Hooker; the flowers are small, and 

 the calyx nearly truncate. But as no specimens corresponding with 

 this figure exist,* C. unicolor Gardn. must ever remain inde- 

 terminable. 



C. neilgherrica is rightly made synonymous with Cawphellia 



* C. P. 1780, quoted doubtfully by Thwaites for C. iniicolor, is represented 

 here by a single flower, not named, but collected by Gardner. It is probably C. 

 hlcolor. 



