9. RuELLA.] 104. ACANTHACE^. 



Reared in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta from seed sent by Br. Buchanan from 

 Mysore, where the plant is indigenous. Flowering time in Bengal the rainy 



Branches opposite, alternately smaller, suberect. smooth, obscurely 4-sided, the 

 whole plant about 3 ft, hio^h, L. alternately smaller, slightly repand, recurved, 

 smooth, size very various, the larger often from 2-4" long. Flowers axillarj^ from 

 1-3, subsessile, small, pale pink, their insertions surrounded with some opposite 

 pairs of small floral leaves and lanceolate petioled bracts. Corolla campanulate, 

 lower lip larger and more deeply coloured, the other four equal. Stigma clavate, 

 curved. 



Anderson, followed by Clarke in the F.B.I. , and also by Train, identifies the plant 

 described by me under JR. Beddomei with the above. There is a good plate of 

 Roxburgh' » plant in his unpublished drawings, and the identification either by his 

 description or the plate appears to me untenable, as I have before observed in my 

 Fl. Ch. Nag. In the drawing further points of difference appear: the bracteoles 

 are shown as toothed, tapering into a broad petiole, the flowers only 7" long, 

 corolla under "o" diam., white with pink markings. The Parasnath plant never 

 varies in this connection, and when fading to white it always does so uniformly 

 without traces of pink or other markings. The specimen identified by Anderson 

 with Boxhurgh's R. cernua is in the Calcutta Herb. Although the shape of the leaves 

 is similar, tliey are densely hairy when young and somewhat hairy when old. 



3. R. suffruticosa, Roxh. Brimaia, Charpatu, K. ; Chaulia, Ranu- 



ran, S. 

 A perennial herb, scarcely suffruticose, with many long slender 

 tuberous roots. Stems 0-12", rarely more, high. Both stem and 

 leaves with many white hairs. Leaves oblong or broadly elliptic, 

 ronnded or obtuse at the tip, 2-5". Flowers pale-purple or usually 

 white 2-2"25" long and 1-1'25" diam., opening at night and soon 

 falling in the morning. Capsule •Q-'lb" long with 12-14 thinly discoid 

 marginate seeds. 



Very common in the hills of the Central Area and Southern Area. Santal Parg. ! 

 Chota Nagpur, all districts! Nilgiri and Mayurbhanj, common, and probably 

 common throughout Orissa ! As it occurs also in Oudh and the Central Provinces 

 it will probably be found in Champaran and the Avhole of the western districts. 

 Fl. May-Sept. Fr. Aug.-Oct. Dies down to the root in the cold season. 



Often forming a rosette with scarcely any stem after jungle fires in Maj'-, the 

 stem usually elongating in the rainy reason but not usually over 8" (up to 2 ft., 

 Clarke). Whole plant very hairy. L. often only l*5-2" long when first flowering. 

 Petiole •12--5". Peduncles shorter or longer than the leaves, the two foliaceous 

 bracteoles at top -Q-'Q" long, obtuse, subsessile. Sepals •2-*25". Narrow part of 

 corolla-tube 7-1", lobes •3-"4" diam., rounded. 



It is one of the herbs kno%ATi collectively as Ili-ranu (rice-beer medicine) by the 

 Kols, by whom it is used in the process of fermentation of rice-beer (Hi, K. ; 

 Handi, Handia, S., ZTran). The root is the part used; it is boiled and then mixed 

 with chunam. Campbell says that the root is used in gonorrhoea, syphilis and renal 

 affections. 



4. R. Beddomei, Clarice. 



A strict erect herb, scarcely suffruticose, 1-3 ft. high from a slender 

 woody stock, with obtusely 4-gonous and grooved, smooth or 

 minutely strigose stems, elliptic to lanceolate mostly long-acuminate, 

 thinly hairy, leaves 2-5" 5" long and light purple sessile flowers 

 2-33" long with petioled, elliptic or ovate, acute or a.cuminate leafy 

 bracteoles. Capsule '7-1" clavate smooth. Seeds visually 4 (up to 8) 

 in each cell, white-margined with dense felted hairs. 



Common in the forests under light or moderately dense shade. Chota Nagpur, 

 all districts, ascends to 3000 ft. ! Sambalpur ! Probably throughout the Orissa 

 Mnts, Fl. Aug.-Dec. Fr. Nov.-Dec. 



674 



