68 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
the fruit “wae somewhat curved like Caraway specimens in all statesand forms, I am now aatisfied 
seed, when arked si snte S a ribs. that one of these species must be reduced. B. virgatum 
It is well anal ramosi, t of mucronatum, seems also too nearly allied to these. 
seems equally posi seep ‘aa atta duinysiany many 
PASTINACA, 
Margin of the calyx obsolete or minutely toothed. Petals roundish, entire, involute, the involute part 
broad and retuse. Fruit flat-compressed dorsally, surrounded by a dilated flattened margin. Méerricarps with 
very . ridges ; the dorsal and 2 intermediate ones equidistant, the lateral contiguous to the dilated mar- 
tee linear, scarcely shorter than the ridges, solitary in each interstice, 2 or more on the commissura. 
aaphaie bipartite. Seed flattened.—Herbaceous plants with a fusiform and often fleshy root. Leaves 
pinnated, the segments toothed, cut or lobed. Umbel compound. Involucre and involucel wanting or few-leay- 
ed. Flowers usually yellow.—W. and A. Prod. p. 372. 
The well known Parsnip is a member of this genus. It is one of very old date being originally establish- 
ed by Tournifort. Since his time another genus has been formed and adopted by all Botanists, from Linnaus 
downwards, under the name of Heracleum, which, however, so far as I can discover, only differs in one point, 
the form of the petals. In this they are said to be roundish, entire, involute, the involute part round and 
retuse—while in the other they are said to be obovate, emarginate, with the point inflexed, the exterior ones 
often larger, spreading and bifid. To my mind these distinctions are too slight and indefinite to merit the 
importance assigned to them, at least as regards the Indian species. Under this impression, I have taken the 
liberty of uniting the Indian Heracleums with Pastinaca, and now publish the H. rigens of our Prodromus 
as a Pastinaca, by which two very artificial genera are united into one very natural one. Of the united genera 
there are several species on the Hills, all distinguished by their coarse foliage, and more or less compressed 
winged seed. So long as they were separate I always found it exceedingly difficult to tell one genus from the 
other, united they are generically easily recognized, though the species are not always quite so easily made 
out. They are all common during the rainy season, but disappear after having produced their seed. I repub- 
lish from my Icones No. 1010, the following: brief remarks regarding the union of the two genera. Being 
unable to discover any characters, by which these species and several others in my collection, may be distin- 
guished generically from Patina, the older genus of the two, I have been induced to refer them all to that 
genus in preference to retaining both it and Heracleum in the Indian Flora. It is my impression that there is 
no difference between the two genera, but I leave that for those who have better means of determining the 
point, to decide. So far as written characters go there is no difference, but there may be in habit, with — 
T am unacquainted. 
PASTINACA —. (R. W. Heracleum rigens linear, much shorter than the fruit, the lateral ones in 
all A.) ay slightly branched, pairs, and close to the intermediate ridges: vitte on 
furrowed, oribeanink or hirsute: leaves ternate; divi- the commissura 4, acute, unequal, the two outer the 
sions roundish, somewhat aw at the base, tooth- shorter.—W. and rv Prod. p. 373. 
ed, upper side more or less scabrous with short hairs, Frequent in pastures, flowering during the rainy 
wnat —. Les ey or tomentose, lateral ones autumnal months. ‘The radical leaves are usually pin- 
hort minal one ona long Barat the latter nated and li the gr tess The specimen selecte 
bluntly. 3 globed or ternate ; le: of the tegen for representation is a small one, but as fmm gre with 
ovate: petals equal: fruit ovate; pr on the back many of the others, this is a small spec 
XXXITI.—ARALIACES. 
To this order the Ivy (Hedera Helex) belongs, and though on these hills we have 
nothing at all like the true Ivy to recall the fondly cherished associations of our native land ; 
we have several species of the same genus and with them the aid of a name, though the 
things are most unlike, to make us think of the Ivy clad towers and trees of the old country- 
The Ivies of India are certainly most unlike those of Europe, wat not more so than we find in 
