7.')8 CXXXI. DIOSCOUEACB.^. 



tlie flowers, varying porliajis .,'„ in. or so, may, I lliink, depend not only on the age of 

 tiie plant, bul, alno (as is the ease willi the loaves) on tlie part of the plant from which 

 tliey liavo liccn gathered. In Herb. Kew. I have found that a specimen collected by 

 Rilchic in Eelganm (No. 7oO) has been named 1). Jacquemontii, while a similar 

 specimen, collected in the same locality and bearing the same number, has been con- 

 signed to the pen/ ajj}ii/lla bundle. 



3. Dioscorea bulbifera, Linn. >Sp. PI. (1753) p. 1033. Tubers 

 large, globose or elongate ; stem terete, unarmed, glabrous, bulbiferous 

 in the leaf-axils, the bulbils warted. Leaves opposite and alternate, 

 variable in size, 3-14 in. long and broad, membranous, dark-green, 

 broadly ovate, acuminate, cuspidate or caudate, base cordate with a 

 broad, deep, or shallow sinus ; nerves 7-9 (rarely 11). Male flowers 

 variable in size, green or purplish, in short slender (almost capillary) 

 spikes 1-4 in. long, close together or scattered on the branches of 

 crowded axillary slender pendulous glabrous spikes or panicles reaching 

 12 in. long ; bracts ovate, acuminate. Perianth sessile by a broad base ; 

 segments subvalvate, fleshy, the outer ^ in, long, lanceolate, the inner 

 smaller and narrower. Stamens 6; filaments short; anthers minute, 

 didymous ; pistillode 3-lobed. Pemale flowers sessile, 1 in. long, in 

 axillary solitary or fascicled pendulous spikes 4-10 in. long. Perianth 

 as in the male. Staininodes 6. Bracts below the ovary minute, ovate, 

 acuminate. Style short, conicil ; stigmas 3, very short, recurved. 

 Capsules f-1 in. by ^-g in., quadtately oblong, rather broader upwards, 

 with a truncate or subcordate base. Seeds winged at the lower end 

 only, the wing twice as long as the nucleus. Grab. Cat. p. 219 ; Trim. 

 Fl. Ceyl. v. 4, p. 279 in adnot. ; Wight, Icon.t. 878 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. 

 Prod. v. 3, p. 128. Dioscorea hdhifera var. pn7^7i<?7?rt, Prain, Beng. PI. 

 p. 1065. D.pnlcliella (sp.), Roxb. "Pl. Ind. v. 3 (1832) ]). 801. Helmia 

 hidhifera, Kunth, Enum. v. 5 (1850) p. 435; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 247. — 

 Flowers: Aug.-Oct. Verit. Kadu-Tcaranda. 



Stocks without locality in Herb. Kew. ! Konkan : Graham, Balzell ^ Gihson ; 

 Dn\M\\, Nairn r S. M. Country : Belgaum, .ff/^cto, 728 ! ; Londa, Cooke\ — Distkib. 

 Tliroughout India; Ceylon. 



Var. saliva, Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1 065. Stem \\ ith axillary bulbils, 

 smooth, not warted. Dioscorea saliva (sp.), Ilook. f. Fl. B. I. v. 6 (1892) 

 p. 295; Grab. Cat. p. 218; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. p. 92 : Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 523; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 3, 

 p. 133. — Vern. Gorlmn. 



Occasionally cultivated. 



4. Dioscorea oppositifolia, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) p. 1033. A 

 large climber ; rootstock shoi-t, with many long cylindric roots as thick 

 as a swan's quill ; stem slender, unarmed ; branches terete, not bul- 

 biferous, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves coriaceous, opposite or sub- 

 opposite (rarely alternate), simple, 2-5 by 1-3 in., polymorphous, from 

 lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, ovate or suborbicular, acuminate or rounded, 

 with well-defined cartilaginous margins, usually glabrous, base rounded, 

 with 3-5 strong nerves ; petioles J-lj in. long. Male flowers in 

 dense shortly jjodunculate spikes ^-1 j in. long which are fascicled in the 

 leaf-axils or along a slender axillary rhachis 4-10 in. long ; bracts below 

 the spikes 1 in. long, lanceolate-subulate; bracts below the flowers Jyy in. 

 long, ovate, acuminate, membranous, moltled with broun. Perianth 



