430 ERIOCAULACE^. 



Female flowers: — Sepals three, free, boat-shaped with 



decided ciliate keel, fitting by concave bases over 



the cells of the ovary. Petals very slender, linear except 



for the slightly dilated tips, fringed at the obtuse end 



with stout white hairs, and villous below with long silky 



hairs, each with a black gland. Each nutlet in fruit 



enclosed by the base of a sepal, the rest of which forms 



a slightly twisted wing. t. 273. 



In damp places. Pulneys : on the Kodaikanal downs. 

 Flowers in September. Fyson 1078, 2083. Boiiriie 687, 1743."^ 

 Nilgiris : Hohenacker 953 ! ; type is No. 950, not seen. 



The use of the sepal as a wing to the nutlet has not I believe been 

 described before. E. bronianum Wall. Cat. 6066 is a Silhet plant and has 

 smooth, smaller, liglit brown involucral bracts. 



Eriocaulon collinum iJ*?^^./., Thwaites enum. 44, C.P. 

 1000 ! ; F.BJ. vi 584, I 41 ; common small Grey-head. 

 Stems tufted. Leaves l^ to 2^ by % inch, flat weak, 

 obtuse. Scapes many, 3 to 8 inches, twisted when dry : 

 sheaths 1% inches; mouth oblique, not very acute. 

 Involucral bracts all black, or the lowest and outermost 

 in bud brown. Floral bracts numerous. Male flowers 

 very small, I '5 mm : — Sepals 1*2 mm, united into a spathe 

 easily split into parts of different width, fringed with 

 short white hairs. Corolla tube funnel-shaped, very 

 slender below; lobes unequal, one petal longer and 

 narrower, fringed with long thick hairs. Female flowers : 

 — Sepals boat-shaped, with white hairs over most of the 

 back and keel. Petals long, lanceolate, fringed with 

 thick hairs to the base but not hairy. Receptacle 

 villous, t. 274. 



In damp places, common. Nilgiris : on the plateau, Pykara, 

 Kotagiri, etc. Fyson 5461, 1086, 2084, 2695, 2720, 2920, 2993, 

 2995. Bourne prob. 3129. 



Gen. Dist. South India and Ceylon at Newera Elia. 



The female petals and the long white hairs of the male 

 are visible on the surface of the flower-head. 



