346 VtvbcnacecU. [Laniana. 



I. liANTANA, L. 



Shrub, 1. ternate or opp., fl. small, in dense axillary heads, 

 bracts large, cal. very small, truncate; cor.-tube slender, 

 cylindrical, lobes 4, nearly equal ; stam. 4, didynamous, 

 inserted and included in tube; ov. 2-celled, with i ovule in 

 each cell, style short ; drupe berry-like, with 2 bony i -seeded 

 pyrenes. — Sp. 40; 3 in F/. B. Ind. 



Zi. indica, Roxb. Hort. Bciit^. 46 (18 14). 



L. alba, Thw. Enum. 242 (non Mill.). C- P. 498. 



Fl. B. Ind. iv. 562. Wight, Ic. t. 1464. 



Small shrub, branches quadrangular, hispid-hairy, yellow- 

 ish-brown ; 1. ii-2 in., ovate, usually in whorls of 3, rounded 

 but suddenly narrowed at base, subacute, crenate-serrate, 

 finely pubescent above, densely and softly white-pubescent 

 beneath; fl. sessile, heads small, rounded, pedunculate, 

 lengthening out in fruit into short spikes, bracts large, ovate, 

 acute, hairy, peduncles about i in., bristly-hairy; cal. mem- 

 branous, truncate, hairy, ciliate; cor. hairy outside, tube \ in., 

 limb flat, spreading, lower lobes rather longest; fil. very short; 

 drupe \ in., pale purplish-pink. 



Lower montane zone ; very rare. I have only seen the C. P. specimens 

 which were collected by Gardner at Galagama. Fl. April ; 'pale purple' 

 (Thwaites). 



Throughout India, Beluchistan, Trop. Africa. 



L. i?-ifo/ia, L., occurs as a roadside weed, and is extremely common in 

 some parts of Uva, as near Badulla. The flowers are a pale violet-pink 

 (rarely white), and the fruit, which is in dense, narrow, erect spikes, is of 

 much the same tint, but duller. It is a native of Trop. America. 



L. acii/eata, L. — Probably the most familiar plant in the moist region 

 of Ceylon is ' the Lantana,' a Tropical American shrub long cultivated in 

 English hothouses, and introduced as an ornamental plant to Ceylon soon 

 after 1824.* It spread as a weed over the country with extraordinary 

 rapidity, and throughout the moist low country now occupies open ground, 

 especially such as has gone out of cultivation, often to the exclusion of all 

 other plants. Its area is still spreading, but it has difficulty in maintain- 

 ing itself above about 3500 ft., and also in the 'intermediate ' low country, 

 where it dies out before reaching the dry region, though there is a colony 

 at Jaffna. Shade ultimately kills it, but it has the power of scrambling 

 up the branches of low trees and so reaching the light. Its rapid diffusion 

 has been much helped by birds, which are fond of the berries (see 

 Thwaites, Enum., Preface, vii., and in the German periodical, ' Flora,' 

 for 1872, p. 142). It has obtained a similar footing in other Tropical 

 parts of the Old World, as m S. India and Mauritius. 



With regard to the right name for this abundant weed, /,. mixta, L., 



* It is said, by Sir Hudson Low, who held a military command here 

 in 1826. 



