384 



the material to Kew with the request that a description of the 

 species be provided. Capt. Sprawson states that the plant is known 

 locally as ' Patwa,' a name that in the plains of India is applied to 

 the Rozelle (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) ; that it gives its name to the 

 place — Dangarh connotes a small plain among the hills — in which 

 it grows ; that the natives say the plant is limited to this particular 

 hill-top and cannot be found elsewhere. Captain Sprawson is 

 satisfied that whether it occurs in places more remote or not, it is 

 certainly restricted in the neighbourhood of Naini Tal to the 

 particular area, less than a mile square, whence his specimens 

 come. Probably, therefore, the plant is at least local in its occur- 

 rence, and this may partly explain the absence of so striking a 

 species from previous collections. Capt. Sprawson's specimens in 

 fruit were gathered in October, 1907 ; flowering specimens were 

 subsequently obtained by him in June, 1908. 



Another circumstance almost sufficient, in the absence of fruit, 

 to explain this plant having been overlooked is the close resem- 

 blance it bears to B. minor, Ham., a species which inhabits the 

 Assam hills to the east of the river Brahmaputra and the Himalaya 

 from Sikkim westward to Kamaon. The tomentum is somewhat 

 lax in B. pellita, closely adpressed-silky in B. minor ; otherwise 

 there is nothing to distinguish the adult leaves of the two ; in 

 both cases the largest leaves frequently attain a length and breadth 

 of three feet. Usually B. minor is a heavy climber, whereas B. 

 pellita, so far as we yet know, is a shrub rarely exceeding four 

 feet in height. Sometimes, however, B. minor is a gregarious 

 shrub ; we have seen that Griffith, who found the species in this 

 condition in the Jaintea Hills in 18H7. used for the erect form the 

 distinctive name B. suffruticosa. On casual examination the 

 flowers of B. pellita might be mistaken for those of B. minor ; 

 they are the same in colour, and the petals of both impart a rich 

 orange tint to water in which they are placed ; the only distin- 

 guishing features are that the tomentum on the calyx and petals 

 of B. pellita, like that on the young leaves, is suberect and 

 velvety, whereas the tomentum on these organs in B. minor is, 

 like the leaf-tomentum, closely adpressed, and that the flowers of 

 B. pellita are distinctly smaller, being only 1*75 cm. long as 

 against 27;> cm. long in B. minor. 



Closely related, however, as the two species are, their fruits are 

 very different. In B. minor the pod is like that of B. mperto or 

 of Spathololus Roxburghii {B. parvi flora) ; it has a long flat 

 indehiscent empty basal portion with a short thick 1-seeded 

 ^-valved apical chamber. In B. pellita the pod, though 1-seeded 

 by abortion of the lower of the two ovules, has the solitary seed 

 some distance below the organic apex, and is more like that of a 

 Dioclea than that of a typical Butea. This striking difference, 

 however, is not greater than the difference which exists in Hypa- 

 pnorus, Hassk., as compared with Erythrina ; and since in the 

 latter case the character is insufficient to warrant the treatment 

 of Hypaphorus (Erythrina lithosperma) as generically distinct 

 rom Erythrina proper, it is necessary, for the sake of uniformity, 

 to consider B. pellita a member of Butea § Meizotropis. 



-V brief revision of Butea, Koen., in accordance with the con- 

 siderations stated above, is subjoined. 



