VARIATION IN BOMBAY STRIGAS. 213 



one calyx. It is to be noted that additional ribs are never obtained 

 by the increase of the number of main ribs but always by the inter- 

 calation of additional secondary ones. If there is only one additional 

 secondary rib that has been always found in an anterior position 

 (fig. 1). 



The case of the 15-ribbed plant is shown in fig. 2. 



10-ribbed cases were found in many plants collected from Karjat, 

 a station on the line between Bombay and Poona, but few were 

 found among those collected actually at Poona. 



B. The colour of the corolla of S. lutea is given as follows : 

 Hooker : " Scarlet, purple, yellow or white. " 



Cook : " Usually bright yellow, occasionally red or white. " 



Trimen : " Bright chrome yellow, " 



Mueschler : " Scarlet, red, yellow or white. " 



Van Buuren, in an MS. note dated Oct. 21, 1913 says " Corolla 

 in early stages white, becomes a light chrome yellow when older or 

 sometimes chrome yellow." 



L. J. Sedgwick, writing to me on 3-9-19 states " The fact that 

 S. lutea could be any other colour than yellow had escaped my 

 notice. . . . It is always yellow in the Dharwar Malnad and the 

 Nilgiris." Writing to me later on 15-11-19 the same botanist says 

 "!As regards S. lutea, Bell swears- to having seen the red-flowered 

 form once at Ekambi in Kanara." 



The corolla colours observed by the present writer are two 

 (1) a sulphur yellow in plants found in grassland at various places, 

 this colour of corolla has never, up to date, been observed by the 

 writer in plants parasitic on crops ; (2) a faintly creamy white, slight- 

 ly deeper in colour at the throat, in plants parasitic on jowar, bajri, 

 and grasses. 



The writer has never seen a red or a purple. There is seme 

 probability that Hooker's purple is a description of the bluish tinge 

 which the corolla, and in fact, the whole plant, take on very soon 

 after being plucked. 



C. The anthers are not described by any of the botanists whose 

 floras have been mentioned. The anthers in S. lutea are brownish- 

 yellow in both white and yellow varieties. The colour of the anthers 

 is an aid to distinguishing the white variety from S. densi flora. I n 

 S. densiflora the anthers are bluish-black. 



With reference to the yellow variety the writer would quote the 

 following footnote from Van Buuren : 



' Since the publication of this, a specimen which is very 

 similar to Striga sulphured according to the description 



