86 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



Plumbago zeylanica, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) 151. A straggling 

 perennial herb ; branches rounded, striate, glabrous. Leaves alternate, 

 ovate, shortly acute at apex, rounded at base and suddenly narrowed 

 and decurrent, 2 to 5 in. long, 1 to 2-5 in. broad, entire, thin, glabrous 

 above, somevphat scurfy beneath and often glaucous ; midrib slender, 

 prominent beneath, main-nerves 6 to 7 pairs, also prominent, curving 

 upwards, secondary nerves and reticulations obscure ; petiole -5 to 1 in, 

 long, winged by the gradually narrowing decurrent base of the blade, 

 auricled and amplexicaul at base. Inflorescence a terminal leafy panicle 

 of spicate racemes, the rachis densely glandular ; bract ovate, acumi- 

 nate, bracteoles 2, linear-subulate ; pedicels very short or none, bracts 

 and pedicels glandular. Calyx narrowly tubular, about -5 in. long, 

 more or less deeply 5-fid ; lobes slender, hyahne on the margins, 

 covered thickly on the back with prominent stalked red glands. 

 Corolla-tnhe. white, slender, funnel-shaped, membranous, about 1 in. 

 long ; lobes 5, nearly -5 in. long, ovate, acute, patent. Stamens 5, free; 

 filaments very slender ; anthers oblong, dorsifixed, exsert. Ovary ovoid ; 

 style filiform, dividing into 5 stigmatose branches. Capsule mem- 

 branous below, thick above, 5-furrowed, sharply pointed ; seed pendu- 

 lous, oblong ; cotyledons obtuse. DC. Prod. XII. 692 ; Eoxb. Hort. 

 Beng. 13, PI. Ind. I. 462 ; Wall. Cat. 7241g ; Wight 111. t. 179 ; Miq. 

 Fl. Ind. Bat. II. 994 ; Dalz. and Gibs. Bomb. PI. 220 ; Kurz in Journ. 

 As. Soc. Beng. XLVI. ii. 217 ; Clarke in Hook. f. PI. Br. Ind. III. 480 ; 

 Trimen PI. Ceyl. III. 65 ; Prain Beng. Plants I. 639. P. auriculata, 

 Bl. Bijdr. 736. P. viscosa, Blanco PI. Pilip. ed. I. 78. 'Tumba- 

 codiveh,' Eheede Hort. Mai. X. t. 8. 



Penang : Curtis 93 ; Dcschamps. Negri Sembilan : Bidley 10095. 

 Singapore : Deschamps ; King's Collector 284. — Distrib. Tropical 

 regions of the Old World, doubtfully indigenous in the Malay Penin- 

 sula or elsewhere. 



Order LXXVIII. GENTIANACB^. 



[By C. B. Clarke.] 



Herbs, erect, twining, or floating ; glabrous except Microrphium. 

 Leaves entire ; those of the lower main stem opposite except in the 

 floating plants, hiflorcsccnce in 2- to 3-divided cymes, or peduncles 

 1- flowered. Floivers symmetric in calyx, corolla, stamens (except in 

 Canscora). Calyx tubular or campanulate ; lobes 4 to 5 (or by accident 

 (?) 6), oblong or linear. Corolla gamopetalous, tube long or short; 

 lobes as many as calyx-segments, usually dextrorsely contorted in the 

 bud. Staviens as many as the corolla-segments, all perfect (except in 

 296 



