98 BORAGINACEM. [Abnebia. 



or spikes ; "bracts £-£ in. long, linear. Calyx | in. long, divided almost to 

 the base, very hispid ; segments unequal, lanceolate, acute. Corolla 

 yellow, hairy outside, tube J in. long, mouth 5 in. in diam.j lobes -j"g in. 

 long, oblong, obtuse. Nutlets very small, ovoid, acute, tuberculate on all 

 sides. 

 Abundant locally in the Sub-Himalayan tracts of Eohilkhand and N". Oudh, 

 in sandy soil; also in Bundelkhand. Flowers in March. Distrib. 

 Common in the Punjab Plain and in Sind, also in W. Tibet ascending to 

 12,000 ft., extending to Persia, Arabia and Nubia. The root yields a 

 beautiful purple dye which is used in Bombay as a substitute for 

 Alkanet. 



LXXVIL— CONVOLVULACEJE. 



Herbs or shrubs, usually twining, rarely trees. Leaves alternate, 

 exstipulate (none in Cuscuta). Flowers regular, 5-merous (some- 

 times 4-merous in Cuscuta), hermaphrodite, often showy, arranged 

 in pedunculate axillary bracteate cymes, rarely solitary. Calyx 

 deeply 5-lobed, often persistent and sometimes much enlarged in 

 fruit, segments often unequal and distinct to the base. Corolla 

 campanulate or funnel-shaped, rarely subrotate ; limb entire, shortly 

 lobed, often plicate in bud. Stamens 5, attached to the corolla-tube; 

 anthers linear or oblong, dorsi-nxed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 

 superior, of 2 carpels, rarely more> the base often encircled by an 

 annular or lobed disk ; cells as many or (by spurious dissepiments) 

 twice as many as the carpels ; style filiform, simple or forked ; 

 stigma capitate or 2-lobed, or stigmas 2 ; ovules usually two in each 

 carpel, sessile, erect, anatropous. Fruit a berry or a capsule dehis- 

 cing by 2 valves or irregularly. Seeds 4-2, rarely solitary, erect ; 

 albumen none or scanty ; cotyledons generally plicate, obscure or 

 none in Cuscuta. — Species about 1>000, in trop. and temp, regions. 



Corolla-tube usually uniformly enlarged from 

 the base, the 5 bands on the lobes rarely 

 clearly defined from the intervening spaces, 

 pollen not echinulate. 



Yellow parasitic leafless twining herbs . 1. Cuscuta. 



Green non-parasitic leafy herbs, shrubs or 

 trees. 



Fruit indehiscent, style none . . .2. Eryctbe. 



Fruit dehiscent, or if indehiscent then 

 small and with thin fragile walls, style 

 or styles present. 



