Alismacece. 369 



fl. secund, about \ in. broad, male and fern, intermixed, bracts 

 ovate, acuminate, much shorter than the capillary decurved 

 pedicels, which are T0-5 in- long; perianth-segments 6, subu- 

 late, spreading in fr. ; male fl. : — stam. 3, anth. sessile, trans- 

 versely oblong, white; fem. fl. : — ov, many, in a globose 

 head, tubercled, style basal, clavate, hardly as long as the 

 body of the carpel, stigma penicillate; head of ripe carpels 

 globose, \ in. diam. ; carpels obliquely cuneiform, compressed 

 laterally, crown tubercled, pericarp indehiscent, thick, dorsally 

 thickest and chambered transversely within ; seed obovoid, 

 embryo very minute, globose. 



Shady forests ; very rare. I have seen only the C. P. plants collected 

 at Gattehatte, near Sitawaka, in 1853 and 1855. Fl. March-May; dull 

 purple. 



Endemic. 



3. S. janthina, Thw. Enum. r>.c)j\^ (1861). 



Hyalisma janthina^ Champ, in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. vii. (1847), 466, 

 Miers in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxi. 49. C. P. 2664. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 558. Trans. Linn. Soc. I.e. t. 7, f. 1-8. {Hyalisma 

 janthina.) 



Stem 4-8 in., slender or rather stout, tortuous, dark violet- 

 purple ; scales few, small, distant ; raceme elongate, fl. irregu- 

 larly disposed, opp, alt. or occasionally whorled, monoecious 

 or dioecious, bracts very small, ovate, acute, pedicels ^-i in.; 

 perianth-segments 8, lanceolate, acute, spreading in fr. ; 

 anth. 4, sessile, broadly obcordate, dehiscence transverse ; ov. 

 many, capitate, smooth ; style subbasilar, much larger than 

 the ov., erect, stigma punctiform; head of ripe carpels \ in. 

 diam., obliquely cuneate, laterally compressed, smooth, pericarp 

 indehiscent, thick, dorsally thickest and chambered transversely 

 within ; seed obovoid, compressed, adherent to the pericarp. 



Wet forests in the moist low country ; rare. Near Galle (Champion) ; 

 Gattehatte, near Sitawaka (Thwaites) ; Negombo (Nietner); near Han- 

 welle (Ferguson); Hewesse; Dolukande. Fl. Jan. -May; pale pinkish- 

 yellow. 



Also in Travancore. 



CXLV.— ALISMACE^. 



SCAPIGEROUS, perennial, marsh-loving herbs ; 1. radical, entire, 

 parallel-veined; fl. in panicled umbels or whorls, uni- or bi- 

 sexual ; perianth inferior, 6-partite in 2 series, 3 outer segm. 

 (sep.) herbaceous, persistent, 3 inner petaloid, involute in bud, 

 deciduous; stam. 6 or 9, perigynous, fil. filiform, anth. versatile, 

 2-celled, slits subextrorse; carpels few or many, sessile on a 



PART IV. B B 



