310 ACANTHACE^. 



Pulneys : only in cool places near water, common at 5,500 

 feet, Silver Cascade, Shembaganur ; but also (rare) on the downs 

 above Kodaikanal. Nilgiris : Coonoor. Fyson 421, 3061. 

 Bourne 40. 



Gen. Dist. South India and Ceylon. 



DIDYMOCARPUS. f.b.i. 106 iv. 



Didymocarpus tomentosa Wight; F.B.I. iv 353, IV 

 33 ; a small herb with Primula-like habit and pale 

 mauve flowers is common on the Kodaikanal ghat just 

 below Shembaganur. t. 205. Wight Ic. t. 1349- 

 Bourne 193,* 1660, I163.* 



ACANTHACE/E. 



Herbs and shrubs characterised chiefly by swollen 

 nodes, opposite undivided leaves, flowers in spikes with 

 conspicuous bracts and bracteoles, and oblong capsules, 

 from which on dehiscence, the seeds are shot out by 

 their thick springy stalks. Corolla of five lobes, twisted 

 or imbricate in bud ; nearly equal or in two lips. 

 Stamens two or four. Ovary surrounded by a honey- 

 secreting disc ; stigma two-lobed. 



Species 1,600, and genera 134, mostly in the tropics, but 

 some in the Mediterranean region, United South Africa and 

 Australia. 



j Corolla lobes nearly equal . . /. 310. strobilanthes. 

 (Corolla distinctly two-lipped : stamens two . . . . b 

 Filaments white, projecting stiffly out of the widely 



open corolla /. 314. andrographis. 



, J Filaments slender, under the upper lip ; anthers white- 

 tailed A 316. JUSTICIA. 



Spike one-sided ; bracts broad, edged with white . /. 318. 



RUNGIA. 



STROBILANTHES. f.b.i. 109 xviii. 



Large or small shrubs or herbs with opposite leaves 

 and rather large violet or white, seldom yellow, flowers in 



