1. Lawia.] 112. PODOSTEMONACEJS. 



1. LAWIA, Tulasm. 

 (Terniola, TuL). 



Stems confluent into a lobed thallus appressed to the substratum 

 {filiform and floating in one species not in our area), leaves minute 

 linear or setaceous. Base of peduncle often surrounded by a raised 

 ring or cylinder closely covered with leaves ; flower without a spath- 

 ella. Flowers 2-sexual with hyaline 3-merous perianth, 3 free 

 stamens and 3-celled ovary with very delicate partitions and 3 

 spreading linear or subulate styles. Placentae thick forming an axile 

 column with very numerous ovules. Capsule septicidally 3-valved, 

 the septa evanescent. 



1. L. zeylanica, Tul. Syn. Terniola zeylanica, Tul. 



A minute lichen-like or moss-like plant with branched thalloid 

 .stems closely adpressed to the rocks on Avhicli it grows and bearing 

 tufts of papillse-like or linear leaves on its surface and aggregated 

 round the short cup-shaped flowering branches. Pedicels •3'-4" 

 erect bearing a -OS-'Ol" long flower. Tepals 3 oblong rounded -06- 

 •07". Anthers exserted, filaments very slender, flattened. Stigmas 

 subulate. Capsule oblong-ellipsoid, -08" long, slightly 3-grooved, 

 not at all ribbed nor angled until dry, when it appears 3 -ribbed. 



Forming patches on wet rocks in the rivers of Angul where these flow through 

 shadj- forest ! Fl., Fr. Jan.-Feb. 



Branches of thallus not more than 15" broad. Leaves •02-"12". 



Willis* reduces all the first six species in the F.B.I, to Lawia zeylanica; all have 

 leaves over '1" and the shorter-leaved varieties have ribbed capsules. In Journal 

 of As. Soc. Bengal, xv, 1919, No. 7, 1 stated that our plant had not ribbed capsules, 

 but I find that on drying these become ribbed ! No Lau-ia has previouslj- been 

 discovered this side of the peninsula. 



FAM. 113. ARISTOLOCHIACEiE. 



Herbs or shrubs, often climbing. Leaves alternate simple entire 

 or lobed, often palminerved, exstipulate.f Flowers often large 

 solitary racemose or cymose, 2-sexual, bracteate or not. Perianth 

 corolline superior, regular or often very zygomorphic, variously 

 shaped, gamophyllous with valvate lobes. Stamens 6 or more, 

 subsessile in a ring round the base of the style with which they are 

 often combined into a column or gynostemium, if free filaments short 

 and thick, anthers with longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary inferior, 

 rarely almost superior, 4-6- but rarely 5-celled, stigma rayed. Ovules 

 many, anatropous on parietal placentae which are free or meet in 

 the axis or placentae axile. Fruit capsular or coriaceous and bursting 

 irregularly. Seeds many with copious albumen and small or minute 

 embryo. 



» Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, vol. i, pt. 4, Sept., 1902, 

 + The intrapetiolar stipule-like appendages of many species of Arisfolochia are 

 strongly developed bracts of suppressed or finally developed axillary shoots. 



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