149. AMARYLLIDACE.E. [7. Hypoxis. 



are thrust by the elongating beak of the hypanthium. Capsule 

 sessile in the axil of a bract, -6- -7" long Avith short beak and villous 

 tip, rather fleshy, with spongy septa, 1-4-seeded. 



Common in the forests throughout Central and Southern ai-eas, especially on 

 clay soils ! Fl. May -Aug. Leaves appear iu June and die down the following 

 cold season. Perennial. 



Rootstock of long tubers about the thickness of a lead-pencil, and base of stem 

 \\'ith many fibrous sheaths. L. with microscopic white dots above and with 

 sparse silky hairs when young, tapering imperceptibly into a petiole which may 

 attain 6" at the end of the rainy season. Rhachis of spike quite hidden by the 

 sheathing bracts. Flowers few, opening in succession, or 2-3 together, only the 

 lowest usually hermaphrodite or female. Tepals dimorphic, male -25- -3", herm. 

 •5- -7" long, oblong, hairy without. Anthers green or yellow. Stigma linear 

 3-cleft. Seeds black shining with faint wavy ridges and a peculiar hooked white 

 strophiole or beak • 1 2" Ions. 



The roots are used in medicine and are considered alterative and tonic. The 

 Kols boil and eat them. The powdered root is also used for bruises by the Oriyas. 



2. C. recurvata, Dryand. 



A stout herb with plicate palm-like leaves 2-3 ft. long by 3-7-5" 

 broad and long petioles 1-2 ft. long. Flowers yellow •6--75" diam. 

 in dense cernuous heads 2-4" diam. on compressed villous scapes 

 3-9" long. Ovary turbinate scarcely beaked. Fruit globose hairy, 

 •25- -3" diam. 



In shady marshy locahties in the forests. Singbhuni ! Puri ! Fi. April-June. 



Kootstock tuberous. Leaves curved, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, petiole 

 channelled and hairy below. Bracts ovate-lanceolate acimiinate, more or less 

 hairy. Pedicels -25". Filaments very short and anthers cohering. Stigma 

 minute. Seeds black, deeply closely grooved. 



A handsome plant with the leaves like those of young palms, and, like many 

 others with plaited surface, displaying a continuous wavy motion even when there 

 appears to be no breeze. 



7. HYPOXIS, L. 



Herbs with rootstock tuberous or a corm. Leaves radical narrow, 

 strongly nerved but scarcely plicate. Flowers solitary, racemed or 

 umbellate with rotate 6-partite persistent perianth not raised on a 

 beak of the hypanthium. Stamens 6 on the base of the perianth, 

 Avith short filaments and erect dorsifixed anthers. Ovary 3-celled ; 

 style short columnar, stigmas 3, erect stout distinct or connate. 

 Ovules 2-seriate. Fruit capsular, 3-valved or circumsciss below the 

 top. Seeds subglobose, testa crustaceous shining, beaked at the 

 hilum. 



I. H. aurea, Lour. 



A small plant not usually more than 2-4" high at the time of flower- 

 ing, from a short erect sub-cormose rootstock about • 7" long with 

 flbrous or not very fleshy roots. Leaves very narrow^ about the length 

 of the scape when in flower by about • 1" broad, elongating to G" by 

 •2" when mature, scarcely plicate, usually recurved, nearly glabrous 

 or rather hairy. Scapes 2-3" long with 1-2 linear bracts, sparsely 

 hairy with spreading hairs above, sometimes 2-flowered, bracts 

 •3- -4" long in fruit. Fls. 2-sexual, with the ovary quite evident 

 below the perianth (which is not the case in Curcidigo, with which the 

 species is sometimes confounded). Tepals -25" long ell. -lanceolate 



1113 



