NEILGHERRY PLANTS. oT 
The genus is one of considerable magnitude, containing, according to Grisebach, 22 species, all natives 
of India and the Indian Islands. Here they occupy a wide range, as regards elevation and temperature, 
some being natives of the plains, almost on the sea level, while others, and the more conspicuous ones, 
occupy the highest mountain ranges of both the Peninsula and Ceylon. The two species figured here 
are from about Coonoor and Nedawuttim. Iam uncertain whether they would bear the colder climate 
of Ootacamund, but if they were found to do so, I would esteem them desirable additions to the 
flower garden. 
The species of this genus are sometimes of difficult discrimination, so much so, that I do not feel quite 
certain, whether I ought not to view the plant here figured, under the name of E. Perroftelii, as a tetan- 
drous variety of E. Wightianum, which is also not unfrequent on the Hills. It is quite possible, I may not 
have got the true plant, as there are some discrepancies between my plant and Grisebach’s character. 
According to his character, there is some difference between the form of the lobes of the corolla, and those 
shown in the figure, and, as I understand, the anthers are more elongated than in my plant. The other, 
E. bicolor, accurately corresponds with Roxburgh’s description, though he obtained his plants from Cuttack. 
It abounds among long grass, on the slopes about a mile below Nedawuttim. 
Exacum Perrotreti (Griseb.), stem straight, 4- 
angled, simplish: leaves sessile, oblong, lanceolate, 
acuminate, 5-nerved with smooth margins 
deeply 4-cleft, segments subulate with semi-lanceo- 
late wings: corolla rose-coloured or blue, lobes obo- 
vato-elliptic cuspidate, 4 times longer than the tube. 
i Lc 
aves: pedicels about an inch long 
with a small bract, corolla about 1} inch in diameter: 
anthers like those of E. Zelanicum: capsule erect, 
ovoid-globose. 
blue; lobes elliptic, oblong, cuspidate, three times 
longer than the tube, which is is a little shorter than 
e calyx.—Corolla large, nearly two inches in di- 
ameter, cymes terminal sub-contracted: middle in- 
ternodes usually shorter than the leaves, Griseb. in 
. C. Prod 
. Prod. 
Neilgherries, below Kotergherry, rare; in pastures 
about a mile below Nedawuttim abundant, flowering 
during the autumnal months. 
GENTIANA. 
Calyx 4-5 parted, or cleft, valvate in astivation. Corolla marcescent (withering on the stalk), funnel- 
shaped, or salyer-shaped, naked or furnished with a crown; limb 4—5-parted, or, counting the folds, spuriously 
10-cleft. Stamens 4-5, inserted on the tube of the corolla; anthers incumbent, or erect; sometimes united 
into a tube, opening externally. Ovary, sometimes bound with a spurious, interrupted disk, 1-celled, ovules 
near the sutures; stigma 2, terminal, revolute or, if contiguous, funnel-shaped ; style none, or with the 
stigma, persitent. Capsule 2-valved, septicidal, 1-celled ; placentas membranaceous, inserted along the edge 
of the sutures. Seed immersed in the placentas—Herbaceous perennials of various habit, erect, or pro- 
cumbent, with raceme-like cymes, or terminal flowers. 
Of this very extensive genus, including nearly 160 species, only one is found on the Neilgherries, and 
that one enjoys a very extended geographical range. Wallich and Royle have it from the Himalayas, 
unawar and Nepaul, and I have gathered it on the Neilgherries, Pulneys, and Neuera Ellia in Ceylon. 
This order, as stated above, is remarkable for the extent of its geographical range, and some of the species 
of this genus exhibit this property of diffusion in the most remarkable degree. The following extract from 
Hooker’s Antarctic Flora presents, I believe, one of the most remarkable examples of the kind yet known 
in the vegetablekingdom. “One species, G. prostrata, has a most extraordinary range, both in longitude and 
latitude ; in Southern Europe it inhabits the Corinthian Alps, between 6000 and 9000 feet high; in Asia 
it has been found on the Alti Mountains about N. latitude 52. Its American range 1s much more remark- 
able, it having been gathered on the tops of the Rocky Mountains in lat. 52 N., where they am fe 
elevation of 15,000 to 16,000 feet, and on the east side of the Andes of South America in 35 south ; 
descends to the level of the sea at Cape Negro; in the Straits of Magellan in lat. 53 S., and at Cape 
Good Hope, in Bherings Straits in lat. 683 N.” P 
