Rauvolfia.'\ ApocynacecB. 125 



Dry region ; rare. Jaffna (Gardner) ; Kurunegala (Thwaites). Fl. 

 March ; white. 



Also in India and Malaya in the dry parts. 



I suspect that this is only a cultivated plant in Ceylon. I have seen 

 it only in the Botanic Garden, and it looks like a cultivated race of 

 C. spinarum, with a larger fruit. 



2. C. spinarum, L. Mant. ii. app. (1771). Hin-karaxnba, 6* 

 Chirukila, Kilatti, T. 



Herm. Mus. 33. Fl. Zeyl. n. 405 {Jasmino-neriuni). Moon Cat. 19. 

 C. diffusa^ Roxb., Thw. Enum. 191. C. P. 1822. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iii. 630. Wight, Ic. t. 427 (C diffusa). 



A small bush intricately and dichotomously branched 

 with rigid, often zigzag, divaricate, cylindrical branches, spines 

 \-\\ in. horizontal, very sharp, often bifurcate, bark white, 

 young parts minutely pubescent; 1. small, f-i:| in., broadly 

 oval, acute at base, sharply apiculate, glabrous, rigid, shining 

 above; fl. sessile, in two clusters of 3 at end of short stiff 

 axillary and apparently terminal peduncles; cal. very small, 

 puberulous, segm. linear, very acute, ciliate; cor.-tube \ in. or 

 rather more, lobes a little shorter than tube, lanceolate, very 

 acute, spreading; fruit f in., broadly ovoid, shining, black, 

 seeds 4. 



Low country ; common, especially in the dry region. Fl. all the year ; 

 white, sometimes stained with pink. 

 Also in India and Burma. 



3. RAUVOZiFZA,^ Z. 



Perennial herbs or low shrubs, 1. in whorls of 3, fl. in 



stalked, terminal cymes; cal. small, segm. 5 ; cor.-tube narrow, 



cylindrical, lobes broad, spreading, overlapping to left; stam. 



5, inserted above middle of cor.-tube, anth. small, pointed; 



disk prominent, annular; carp. 2, distinct or slightly connate, 



each with 2 collateral ovules, stigma large, truncate, excavated 



beneath, bifid at point; ripe carp, distinct or slightly connate 



below, pulpy, seed solitary, with fleshy endosperm. — Sp. 40; 



7 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Rauvolfia and Ophioxylon are, doubtless, one genus. The species 

 are mostly American. 



Cor.-tube over ^ in.; ripe carp, connate below . . i. R. SERPENTINA. 

 Cor.-tube i in.; ripe carp, distinct . . . .2. R. densiflora. 



* L. Rauwolf travelled in the East in the sixteenth century, and 

 collected many plants. 



