90 



BOBAGINACE^J. 



[Helioteopium. 



Calyx not enveloping the fruit, lobes long 

 and narrow. 



Corolla-lobes caudate-acuminate. An 



erect hispid annual . • . 3. H. subulatum. 



Corolla-lobes not candate-acuminate. 

 Corolla-lobes with intermediate 

 teeth spikes ebracteate. An erect 

 herb branched from a woody base 4. H. Eichwaldi. 



Corolla-lobes without intermediate 

 teeth, spikes bracteate. 



Leaves elliptic or obovate, 

 obtuse, bracts persistent . 5. H, ovalifolium. 



Leaves narrowly lanceolate or 

 linear, acute. 



Spikes not conspicuously 

 bracteate upwards. 

 A small shrub-like herb 

 with stiff ascending 

 branches . . . 6. H. zeylanicum. 



A much branched pro- 

 cumbent herb 



Spikes conspicuously brac- 

 teate throughout • 



7. H. strigosum. 



8. H. marifolium. 



1. H. indicum, Linn. 8p. PL 130 ; Roxb. FL Lid. i, 454 ; F. B. I. iv, 

 152 ; Watt E. D.; Train Beng. PL 716; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 207. 



A coarse, diffuse, hairy annual, ^-2 ft. high. Stem stout and somewhat 

 succulent but woody at the base ; branches ascending, clothed with stiff 

 spreading hairs. Leaves alternate or sub-opposite, petioled, 1-4 in. 

 long, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, sparsely hairy above, 

 minutely pilose beneath, margins undulate or subserrate, base rounded 

 or cordate or decurrent into the petiole, nerves prominent beneath. 

 Spikes 2-6 in. long, usually extra-axillary, simple or forked, ebracteate 

 hispid. Flowers pale-violet, sessile, 2-ranked. Calyx 5-partite, ^j in. 

 long, sparsely bristly outside ; segments unequal, narrowly lanceolate, 

 acute. Corolla funnel-shaped, j in. long, hairy outside tube slender, 

 cylindric, slightly dilated at the base ; lobes very small, rounded, 

 reflexed. Stigma shorter than the style, with an annular frill at the 

 base ; apex short, obtuse. Fruit % in. long, deeply 2-lobed, each lobe 

 bluntly -l-ribbed, containing 2 angular beaked 1-seeded pyrenes, each 

 with an empty cavity on the inner side. Seeds white, subquadrate. 



Common in moist places and often as a weed on rubbish heaps and by 

 roadsides. Flowers Oct. Disteib. Throughout the hotter parts of 

 India and in Ceylon ; also in Malaya, China, Trap. Africa and America. 

 The plant is used as a local application to boils and stings of sorts. 



