3G8 Dr Balfour''s Description of Bare Plants. 



the laminEB, slightly swollen where they join the stem ; lamina 

 orbiculato-cordate in circumscription, palmate, deeply five-lobed, 

 lobes incised, lobules toothed, ending in sharp points. Bracts 

 trifid, the divisions being cut or entire, two emptj' alternate brac- 

 teoles occurring about the middle of each single-flowered pedicel. 

 Inflorescence laxly panicled, the peduncles and pedicels being 

 erect, swollen upwards and covered with a glandular pubescence. 

 Receptacle of the flower swollen and oblique. Estivation im- 

 bricate. Floivers large, blue. Calyx covered with glandular 

 pubescence, helmet-shaped sepal gibbously-semicircular, prolonged 

 in front into a short greenish point, which is turned upwards, two 

 lateral sepals (wings) rounded, reniform with reflexed margins, 

 lower sepals oblong, acute, deflexed, spreading, one usually larger 

 than the other, occasionally three. Petals varying in size and 

 form, upper ones cuculliform with scattered hairs and having 

 narrowed grooved stalks ending in hollow incurved laminae, which 

 have their apices prolonged in a reflexed manner, other petals 

 either wanting or mere filiform processes. Stamens indefinite. Fi- 

 laments hairy, thickened below where they are margined with a 

 broadish membrane. Anthers 2-lobed, with longitudinal dehi- 

 scence. Ovaries five, villous. Style single. Stigma obscurely 

 2-lobed. Ovules numerous, somewhat angular and winged, rugose. 

 F>~uit follicular, follicles oblong, villous, reticulated. Seeds 

 black and pitted. 



The specimen does not agree completely, more especially as regards 

 the form of the leaves, with the figure in Wallich's Plantoe Asia- 

 ticce Rar lores. The variation may depend on situation, for Wal- 

 lich remarks, that on Sheopore in Nipal, where he gathered the 

 plant at the height of 10,000 feet, it was a smaller, more slender, 

 and smoother plant than in other parts of India, with an almost 

 simple stem, narrow segments of the leaves, and thin racemes. 

 As it approaches higher elevations, towards the Snowy Moun- 

 tains, it attains a larger size and habit, and is covered with soft 

 greyish hairs, the divisions of the leaves become broader, the 

 spikes larger, and the flowers more dense and numerous. 



In Dr Hamilton's herbarium, in the University of Edinburgh, there 

 are certain species of Aconite which are marked Caltha ? The 

 first, No. 12-i7, is called Bisma, Bislima, or Bihhma, Snowy 

 Mountains, 1810. The second. No. 1248, Nirbisia, Nirbishi, or 

 Nirhikhi, Snowy Mountains, 1810; pointed out by the moun- 

 taineers as a very poisonous root. There is a third in the cata- 

 logue. No. 1249, marked Codoa, Kodoya, Bish, or Bikh. This 

 last, according to Dr Wallich's statement, is Aconitum ferox. The 



