42 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



1. TRIBULUS. 



T. terrestris. A pretty plant, all grey and hairy, often quite 

 flat on the ground ; leaflets about 6 pair, oblong oblique, flowers 

 stalked yellow, fruit comparatively large, irregularly lobed and 

 angled, with several sharp spurs standing out horizontally. 

 GoMru, Sardte. 



Deccan, Guzerat, Kattywar. Throughout India and the warm 

 regions of the globe (#.). The English name of the genus is Caltrops, 

 from the shape of the fruit. 



2. FAGONIA. 



F. arabica (F. Mysorensis, D.). A small much-branched 

 undershrub, all covered with glandular hairs and very thorny ; 

 2 small oblong leaves and 4 thorns in a whorl, and one pink 

 flower in each axil, fruit deeply 5-lobed with a sharp point at 

 the top. Dhamdsd. 



The Decoan. 



Guiacum officinale, the wood of which is lignum vitae, belongs to this 

 order. 



ORDER 26. GERANIACE^l. 



With this H. includes the two old orders Oxalidea and 

 Balsaminece as tribes. The three families have such very 

 decided characteristics of their own that it seems well to 

 separate them as much as possible. 



TBIBE GERANIE.E. Geraniums. 



Sepals and petals 5, stamens two or three times as many, 

 disk of 5 small glands, ovary 5-lobed, styles 5, fruit 5-lobed, 

 generally with a long beak. 



This family, so well known in England both by wild flowers, 

 stork bills, crane bills, &c., and by the cultivated pelargoniums and 

 tropaeolums (Indian cress, but often called Nasturtium), is represented 

 in W. India by various species and varieties of the two last men- 

 tioned genera, but by only a single wild species. 



Monsonia, stamens 15, united below. * M. Senegalensis, a small 

 difinse plant, leaves ovate or cordate, hairy, long-stalked ; flowers 

 solitary, pink, capsule hairy, with a beak often as long as the whole 

 plant. Dry pastures in the Deccan, not common (D.). 



Note that Tropceolum has the capsule not beaked, and one petal is 

 spurred. 



TRIBE OXALIDE.E. Wood sorrels. 



Leaves compound, flowers regular, sepals and petals 5, 

 stamens 10, 5 longer, styles 5, capsule 5-celled. 



1. OXALIS. Herbs with trifoliate leaves, ovary 5-lobed, 

 stigma capitate bifid, seeds bursting elastically. . 



