448 XCTIII. LABIAT^E. 



DouBTEUL Species. 



PLECTRANTHUS BOTimDIFOLIUS, Grab. Oat. Bo. PI. (1839) p. 148, which 

 J. Grahaiu on Nimmo's authority mentions as being found in tlie Ivonkans. has not 

 been absohitely identified. Dalzell & Gibson (Bo. Fl. p. 205) make no mention of the 

 tubers which Graham says are edible, and tliough they describe the plant, there are 

 no specimens either in Dalzell's Herbarium in Herb. Xew. nor anywhere else so far as 

 I know. The ' Kurka' of Eheede (Hort. Mai. v. 11, t. 2.5), to which Graham refers 

 the plant, has been shown by Trimen (Fl. Ceyl. v. 3, p. 374) to be Cokus parviflorus, 

 a plant much cultivated in Ceylon for its edible tubers. Tliat plant is not, however, 

 indigenous in the Bombay Pi'esidency nor has it to my knowledge been cultivated 

 there. It has been found at Quilon in the southern part of the Peninsula, and Trimeu 

 {I. c.) thinks it may have reached Ceylon from Malaya. 



Excluded Species. 



PLECTRANTHUS SUBINCISUS, Benth., which Woodrow (Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 

 (1899) p. 361) mentions as occurring at Poona, does not appear to be indigenous in the 

 Bombay Presidency, the Poona specimens being those of an Orfkosiphou. 



8. COIiEUS, Lour. 



Herbs or undershriibs. Flowers in lax or close paniculate or racemose 

 G-10-flo\verecl cymes. Calyx 2-lipped ; upper lip widest, not decurrent. 

 Corolla 2-lipped; tube exserted, decurv^ed ; throat equal or obliquely 

 swollen ; upper lip short, broad, 4-lid, recurved ; lower lip much longer, 

 entire, boat-shaped, stipitate or narrowed at the base. Stamens 4, 

 didyuaraous, connate below into a sheath separate from the corolla ; 

 anther-cells usually confluent. Disk enlarged in front. Ovary 4-partite ; 

 style subequally 2-fid. Fruit of 4 orbicular or ovoid smooth dry nutlets ; 

 basal scar small. — Distbib. Asia, Tropical Africa and Australia; species 

 80 or more. 



Upper lip of calyx ovate, acuminate, longer than the lower ; bracts 



with a long nuicro 1. C.harhatus. 



Upper lip of calyx suborbicular, shorter than the lower; bracts 



scarcely mucronato 2. C. spicaitis. 



1. Coleus barbatus, Benih. in Wall. PI. As. liar. v. 2 (1831) 

 p. 15. Perennial, 1-2 ft. high with a thick fleshy rootstock ; stem 

 cylindric, stout, ascending, slightly branched, \\ ood}'^ at the base and, as 

 Avell as the branches, villous with long hairs. Leaves 1-3 by g-1 1 in., 

 elliptic-oblong, obtuse, crenate, pubescent on both sides, base usually 

 tapering ; petioles \-^ in. long. Flowers large and showy, in whorls of 

 6-10 which are at first rather close, afterwards distant, in long spike- 

 like racemes 0-12 in. or more long ; rhachis densely glandular-hairy ; 

 bracts large, conspicuous, imbricate before flowering, 1^ in. long to 

 extremity of nuiero by 1-^ in. wide, broadly ovate with a slender mucro 

 about jIq in. long, membranous, veined, pubescent and ciliate. deciduous; 

 pedicels short, decurved. Fruiting calyx often tinged with purple, 

 reaching nearly jj in. long with white hairs outside and a ring of white 

 liairs in the throat ; upper lip ovate, acutely acuminate, entire, Avined, 

 slio-htlv longer than the lower ; lower lip of 4 subequal narrowly 

 trianfTular subulately pointed teeth. Corolla pale-purple or blue, nearly 

 I in. long; tube bent nearly at a right angle, the mouth oblique : u])]ier 

 lip short, erect, with 4 shallow rounded lobes ; lower lip stipitately 

 narrowed into a neck at the base ', in. long, bo;it-shaped and curved 

 upxAards so that the boat-shaped portion projects horizontally beyond 



