368 Triuridece. \Sciaphilce, 



ovule erect, anatropous ; fr. a head of i -seeded carpels^ 

 pericarp soft or hard ; seed free or adherent to the cell- 

 wall ; endosperm hard, granular, embryo minute, globose, in 

 the base of the endosperm. 



I. SCZAPKIZ.A, Bl. 



For characters, see Order. — Sp. 12; 4 in /^/. B. Ind. 

 Style much shorter than the ow 



Stam. 6, stigma capitellate . . . . i. S. eruhescens. . 



Stam. 3, stigma penicellate . . . . 2. S. secundi flora. 

 Style much longer than the ov 3. S. lANTHINA. 



1. S. erubescens, Micrs in Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. 74 (1850). 



Thw. Enum. 294. Apliyllcia o'ltbescens. Champ, in Calc. Journ. Nat. 

 Hist. vii. (1847), 468. Miers in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxi. 48. C. P. 2666. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 558. Trans. Linn. Soc. 1. c. t. 6, f. i-ii {Aphylleia 

 erubescens). 



Stem 3-6 in., very slender, wiry, flexuous, simple or 

 sparingly branched, purple, base creeping, underground 

 portion tortuous, pale brown, clothed with radicular fibrils ; 

 cauline scales few, small, distant; raceme elongate, laxly very 

 many-fld., fl. male and (fewer) fem. mixed, bracts 2^0— tV in., 

 lanceolate, acuminate, spotted, pedicels \-\ in., wiry, spread- 

 ing, tortuous and decurved ; fl. about yV in. diam., segm. 6, 

 all rcflexed from the base after flg., 3 ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 tips naked, 3 much longer, lanceolate, caudate-acuminate, tips 

 bearded with long hairs ; male fl. : — stam. 6, minute, in a ring 

 at the base of the segments, fil. very short, anth. orbicular, 

 peltate, dehiscing across the cells, pistillode o; fem. fl., ov. 12, 

 sessile on a short receptacle, obovoid, style minute, basal, 

 stigma capitellate, papillose or very shortly penicillate; ripe 

 carpels ^V in., cuneatcly obovoid, pericarp soft, surface papil- 

 lose, 2-valved ; seed loose, ovoid-oblong, testa coriaceous, 

 striate, dark brown. 



Damp shady places in moist low country; very rare. Narawella, 

 near Galle (Champion); Poree, near Colombo (Ferguson). Fl. Dec- 

 April; pale puiplish, speckled with red in streaks. 



Endemic. 



Champion and Miers both figure the perianth of this species as con- 

 sisting of 3 e(|ual naked see;ments, but I find that normally 3 of the 

 segments are nearly twice as long as the others, with very slender bearded 

 tips. I do, however, find a few flowers in the same raceme with the 

 others, as figured by these authors. They both describe the ripe carpels as 

 dehiscing by two valves, and the flowers as sometimes bisexual. — J. D. H. 



2. S. secundlflora, Thw. in Hook. Journ. Bot. vii. 10 (1855). 

 Thw. Enum. 294. C. 1'. 2665. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 558. 



Stem 6-14 in., simple or rarely branched, flexuous, dull 

 purplish, sheathing scales few, small, distant; raceme 4-6 in., 



