THE FLOWERS OF TRAGOPOGON 257 



Society, that the times of sunrise at Upsala and Innsbruck, respec- 

 tively, about 1st June, are as follows: — Upsala, 2 h. 50 m., G.M.T. • 

 Innsbruck, 4 h. 6 m., G.M.T. From this, it appears that, at .both 

 places, according to the observations of Linnaeus and Kerner, the 

 flowers of Tragopogon open within from an hour to two hours after 

 sunrise. At St. Moritz, sunrise takes place a few minutes earlier 

 than at Innsbruck ; jet, according to my observations made there, 

 the flowers did not open much before 8 a.m., considerably over three 

 hours after sunrise ; from which I conclude that either I failed to 

 observe the opening early enough, or the hour of opening was retarded, 

 in some way, by the great elevation (over 6000 ft.). — M. C. 



THE INDO-MALAYAN SPECIES OF JUSSLEA. 

 Br Henry N. Ridley, C.M.G., F.R.S. 



The genus Jussicea comprises a considerable number of marsh- 

 loving herbs with yellow or rarely white flowers ; the greater number 

 are South American, but some occur in Africa and Australia and a 

 limited number in Tropical Asia. Of these the following are Indo- 

 Malayan : — 



V 1. J. eepens L. (Sp. PL ed. 2, 555 ; Fl. Zeyl. 169), an aquatic 

 , plant with white flowers, is sufficiently well known. 



2. J. suffruticosa L. (Sp. PI. I. c), is based on the figure and 

 description of Rheede (Hort. Malab. ii.-S^t. 49). Linnaeus gives as 

 synonyms " Ludwigia capsulis oblongis uncialibus Roy. Lugd. 252 ; 

 liau Hist. 1510 " and " Lgsimachia indica non papposa, flore luteo 

 miniino " Herm. Lugd. 396 : these descriptions are based on Rheede's 

 figure, which is quite a good one. Linnaeus, however, describes the 

 plant thus: "Jussiaea erecta villosa, floribus tetrapetalis octandris 

 pedunculatis." Rheede says nothing about its being villous, nor 

 does he so represent it, though he uses the word mollis, by which I 

 take him to mean thin or tender. There is no specimen in Linnaeus's 

 herbarium, nor does it appear that he ever saw the plant, but there 

 can be no doubt as to what was the plant intended by Rheede. It is 

 remarkable inter alia for its slender cylindric angled fruit and its 

 very small corolla, hardly - 2 in. across, the petals being much shorter 

 than the sepals. Very unfortunately Hooker, Clarke, King, and most 

 later botanists lumped together the whole of the Asiatic species 

 under the name of J. suffruticosa L., regardless of whether the 

 corolla is barely "2 in. across or 3 in. wide or the capsules slender and 

 cylindric or obconic. Haines (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xv. p. 313, 

 1919) describes and figures a plant under the name of J. fissendo- 

 carpa, from a peculiar character in the seed, quite unlike anything in 

 the other Asiatic species, which he was the first to point out. This 

 plant is identical with the commonest species in the Malay Peninsula, 

 and Haines also gives it from Purnea and Bengal, and a specimen 

 has recently been received at Kew from Malabar (Rheede's old 

 locality) ; and this plant is undoubtedly Rheede's plant and the true 

 J. suffruticosa L. The comparative rarity of the plant in India 

 Journal of Botany. — Vol. 59. [September, 1921.] t 



