158. MARANTACE.^. [2. Phrynium. 



tomentose. Style fleshy. Fruit 2-3-lobed and -seeded, rugose ; 

 subglobose with flattened top, -4- -5" diam. 



In marshes, gregarious. Mais of Pari ! Fl. April-May. Fr. r.s. 



Eoot creeping, woody. Stems much polished, green. Leaves with a short 

 petiole -2- -25" long, very finely nerved, sometimes pubescent. Sheath produced 

 into a short ligule. There is a curious hard bracteole at the base of the pedicel, 

 •08" long, subulate and angular when dry. This does not appear to have been 

 mentioned in works consulted. 



Mats are made from the split stems. 



2. PHRYNIUM, WiUd. 

 Herbs with creeping rootstock. Stem sometimes with a single 

 terminal broad leaf and (in our species) a lateral dense head or spike 

 of small or mod. -sized flowers (sometimes radical in other species). 

 Tube of hypanthium elongate bearing linear-oblong spreading petals, 

 the staminal-tube further elongated with unequal petaloid segments. 

 Lateral staminode entire or 3-tid, labellum broad, transversely ridged 

 Avithin. Stamen narrow. Ovary 3-celled, stjde adnate below to 

 the staminal tube, free portion hooked. Ovules 1 in each cell. Fruit 

 globose or oblong indehiscent or finally dehiscent with 1-3 large 

 seeds. Aril short fleshy. Embryo curved in a horse-shoe round a 

 central canal in the perisperm (according to Petersen the perisperm 

 canal is forked below the embryo). 



Bracts of inflorescence with a hardened entire tip, petals white, 



shorter than the tube . . . . . . .1. ])arviflorum. 



Bracts of inflorescence with a bristly tip. Petals purple, longer 



than the tube ......... 2. capitatnm. 



1. P. parviflorum, Eoxb. Eunkona, KJiond. 



An erect usually gregarious herb with slender stem 2-5 ft. high from 

 a tuberous rhizome, bearing single terminal large oblong or ovate- 

 oblong leaf 12" by 6" to 20" by 8", shining both sides, shortly cuspidate. 

 Flowers small white, the staminodes tipped with yellow, aggregated 

 into a sessile lateral head 1-2" diam. near the top or middle of the stem. 

 Fruit broadly oblong •4-- 5" long, 1 -seeded. 



Wet jungles. Singbhum ! Puri ! Fl. July-Aug. Fr. Sept.-Feb. 



Leaf base rounded and shortly produced on top of petiole. Petiole about 2". 

 Heads sometimes two together with lanceolate bracts cuspidate, as long as the 

 corolla-tube. 



2. P. capitatum, Willd. 



Habit of the last but the bracts of the head have a scarious tip 

 which breaks up into bristles. The flowers have purple petals and 

 rose-coloured staminodes. Petals longer than the coroila-tube. 

 Fruit usually 3 -seeded and 3 -sided. 



Singbhum, along shady nalas ! Fl. July-Aug. 



The large American genus Calathea has short unbranched stems 

 from the rhizome and often handsome leaves. The inflorescence is 

 usually strobilate or capitate with closely imbricating usually' spiral 

 bracts and several flowers to each bract. Labellum broad usually 

 emarginate. Cucullate staminode with inrolled margins. Lateral 

 staminode 1, usually emarginate. 



1149 



