THE INDIAN SPECIES OF ERIOCATJLON. 141 



did not notice it at all. Steudel and Koerniche were both aware of 

 this difference, but neither paid any particular attention to it. Apart 

 from the improbability of so very definite a change as the loss or 

 acquirement of the black colour happening more than once, yellow 

 anthers are so distinctive that I have no hesitation in making a 

 ' section ' of the species which possess it. The protruding male petal 

 is also a very distinctive character and one naturally used in any 

 scheme of classification. It appears to be a very constant character, 

 and nearly all the species which show it do so quite definitely. But 

 as might be supposed indications of the habit are not wanting in 

 other species, some of which may therefore be regarded as on the 

 line of development. The stamens do not vary in number. They 

 are always six, except in the one dimerous- flowered species. 



In the female flower the ovary is invariably 3-Iobed (except of 

 course in dimerous flowered species) — there is no reduction. The 

 petals are 3 or 2, and only slight differences occur between those of dif- 

 ferent species ; except in one direction. Asa rule they are oblanceolate, 

 with thick terminal hairs and slender, longer, lateral ones ; but in some 

 species there is a brush of slender filaments or hairs, which might be 

 regarded as due either to the longitudinal splitting of the petal into 

 many parts or to a narrowing of the petal accompanied by an increase 

 in the number and length of the basal hairs. This latter change may well 

 have come more than once, in different groups, I therefore do not use 

 it as a 'sectional' characteristic. 



The Sepals. 



The sepals shows the most interesting variation. The simplest 

 probably primitive, form is boat-shaped, black in colour and with a few 

 hairs along the mid-rib or keel. In one Himalayan species the sepals 

 are connected into a calyx similar to that of the male flower. The 

 petals of this species differ from others in having the gland terminal 

 and in being clawed. Ruhland has a group of Chino-Japanese species 

 with these character, I therefore found my section CONNATO-SEPALAE 

 to include them. In all other species the sepals are free. A development 

 of the boat-shaped sepal is the formation of an enlargement (a thick- 

 ening, wing, or crest) along the keel. In some species this takes the 

 form merely of a thickening (E. Thoniasi PI. I. fig. 7) in others of a 

 narrow wing or crest which may be lobed, or pectinate (figs. 5 & 6.) 

 The depth of the thickening or crest appears to vary in the same species 

 but there is usually no doubt about the crest when it is present. I 

 therefore make a ' section ' of those species which possess this en- 

 largement, whatever its precise form may be. Here again it may be 

 that E. sexangulare, E. cuspidatum and E. Thomasi, are not derived 



1697—19 



