150 SCBOPRTJLATLIACEM. [ Iltsanthes. 



A small diffuse glabrous herb. Stems often creeping at the base and 

 rooting from the nodes, sometimes tinged with purple ; branches 4-10 

 in. long, slender. Leaves shortly stalked, |-£ iu. long, ovate, obtuse or 

 subacute, obscurely crenate-serrate, usually unequally subcordate at 

 the base. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicels about twice as loug as 

 the leaves. Calyx-segments almost free to the base, narrowly lanceo- 

 late, acuminate. Corolla -f in. long, white, margined with pale-purple 

 ani marked with a yellow spot on the lower lip. Capsule linear-lanceo- 

 late, acute, twice as long as the calyx. Seeds ellipsoid. 



Abundant within the area in swamps and rice-fields, flowering during the 

 rainy and cold seasons. Distkib. : Throughout India and in Ceylon, 

 W. HimaUya up to 4,0 )0 ft. and extending to the Malay Peninsula, 

 Borneo, China and Cochin-Chiua, 



5. V. pyxidaria, Maxim. Diagn. PI. Nov. Dec- xix, 413 ; Train Beng. 

 PL 769. V. erecta, Benth : F.B.I, iv, 231. Gratiola integrifolia, Roxb. Fl. 

 Ind. i, 137. 



A small erect glabrous annual, 4-8 in. high, branching from the base, 

 branches not rooting. Leaves sessile, |-f in long, elliptic or oblong, 

 obtuse, entire or obscurely crenate ; nerves 3-5 in. long, parallel. 

 PedAcels axillary, solitary, slender, usually twice hs long as the leaves. 

 Calyx-segments -g-£ in. long, free to the base, lanceolate or linear, rather 

 obtuse, shorter than the ovoid-orbicular capsule. 



Dehra Dun (Gamble), Rohilkhand (T. Thomson), Bundelkhand (Duthie). 

 blowers during the rainy and cold seasons. DismiB, : Himalaya from 

 Kashmir to Assam, common in Bengal, also in C. and S. India, but 

 not recorded from Ceylon ; extending to Siam, China, Japan, Malaya 

 and Polynesia and westwards to France. This plant closely resembles 

 Ilysanthes parviflora, and the nerves of the leaves are parallel as in 

 the latter genus. Roxburgh describes the plant as erect when young, 

 but afterwards straggling. 



14. ILYSANTHES, Rafin- ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 283. 



Annual glabrous slender marsh- plants. Leaves opposite, entire or 

 •toothed, 1-5-nerved from the base. Flowers small axillary or 

 passing into terminal racemes, pedicels often reflexed in fruit, 

 bracteoles none. Calyx 5-partite, segments narrow. Corolla 

 2-lipped, tube cylindric ; upper lip outside, concave, notched ; lower 

 larger, spreading, 3-lobed. Stamens, the 2 upper only perfect, sub- 

 included, the lower pair reduced to staminodes, anthers connivent, 

 cells divaricate ; staminodes 2, bilobed, one lobe glandular, the other 

 glabrous. Ovary 2 -celled, stigma 2-lamellate. Fruit a septicidal 

 capsule ; valves entire, separating from the placentiferous septum. 

 Seeds, many, rugose. — Species 35, India, extending to Siam, S. Africa 

 and S. America. 



