NEILGHERRY PLANTS. io 
ADHATODA. 
Calyx deeply 5-cleft, lobes equal. Corolla ringent, tube shortish, upper lip concave, lower 3-lobed. 
Stamens 2, inserted below the middle of the tube; anthers 2-celled, cells oblique on the connective one 
somewhat above the other, the lower ones spurred. Stigma obtuse, capsule depressed! four-seeded in the 
middle; seeds either lenticular or flat. Herbs or shrubs: flowers various in form: leaves quite entire. 
Spikes either axillary opposite, or the flowers axillary, or the spikes terminal. Bracts and bracteoles often 
large, longer than the calyx, flowers either opposite, or, by abortion, one ranked. 
this genus, Nees, in his recent monograph, in De Candolle’s Prodromus, describes 98 species; about 
20 of which claim India as their native country. Generally they are inhabitants of the warmer regions 
within the tropics, hence they are rare on the Hills. The one here being almost the only species found 
at so high an elevation as Dodabet. It is found all over the higher ranges of the Hills lying flat on the 
ground, nestling among the grass, if in open exposed situations, but when growing among bushes or under 
shade, shows some tendency to take advantage of the support and become more conspicuous, It is rather 
pretty when seen among the deep-green coloured grass to which its cream coloured bracts and light green 
leaves form a contrast, but apart from these accompaniments, it has little to recommend it to the attention 
of the florist. 
Apuatopa Nemonerrica (Nees), leaves lanceo- mund, where it is always in flower. A low procum- 
late, sessile, glabrous, smooth: spikes terminal, 4- bent plant, lying flat on the ground, but rendered 
sided; bracts and bracteoles ovate, acuminate, ve- conspicuous from the grass, among which it grows, 
noso-3-nerved, glabrous. i i 
Neilgherries, frequent in pastures about Ootaca- 
ANDROGRAPHIS. 
Calyx deeply 5-parted, equal, lobes narrow. Corolla 2-lipped, upper lobe entire or bifid, inferior trifid, 
unless when resupinate, when the contrary is the case. Stamens two, anthers two-celled, cells parallel, 
bearded at the base. Capsule ovate, or lanceolate, depressed, 2-celled to the base, 4- or many-seeded ; par- 
tition attached to the valves. Seeds oval, obtuse, roundish ; obliquely truncated at the base, pitted thimble- 
like, with a deep hilum. Herbaceous annuals or under shrubs, decumbent or erect, stem and branches 
Bracts opposite, shorter than the calyx, bracteoles wanting, or two, minute, at the base of the pedicel; 
flowers more or less rough or glandular, white or variously purple ; lobes of the calyx linear or filiform, 
eapsule linear, oblong, flattened. 
Of this genus Nees describes 11 species, but this is not one of them. He separates this and a con- 
gener under the name of Erianthera, partly on the ground of difference of habit which would have been | 
well enough had the distinction been made to rest on that alone, but that not being the principal reason 
assigned to the two genera rest on assumed differences of the anthers which do not exist, namely, Erianthera, 
« inferior cell of the anthers abortive reduced to a woolly beard.” Andrographis, “anthers 2-celled, cells 
parallel, bearded at the base.” A reference to the magnified figures of the anthers will at once show 
that they correspond with the character of the last and that this is therefore a genuine species of Andro- 
graphis, though differing in habit, and that this therefore, and his other species, can at best form but a 
section of the genus distinguished by its depressed diffuse habit. The genus Andrographis, is so nam- 
ed, somewhat fancifully, perhaps, in allusion to the tuft of hairs on the end of the anthers resemb- 
ling a camel-hair pencil, and may, I fancy, be translated Pencil-beard. It is an interesting one to the 
Creyat, (Andrographis (or Justicia) paniculata,) is a very generally diffused plant in the stunted jungle, 
which covers the low rocky hills so common in the Peninsula, as well as along the bases of all our 
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