196 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



From which also the common English name Turnsole. But Tournefort 

 denies this interpretation, and says that it is so called from flower- 

 ing about the time of the summer solstice, when the sun turns to- 

 wards the equinoctial. Heliotrope was formerly supposed to possess 

 the power of counteracting poison, and rendering the bearer invisible. 



" Among this swarm, most loathsome to survey, 

 Kan spirits naked and with terror pale, 

 No hiding place, no heliotrope had they." 



Wright's " Dante." Inferno xxiv. 92. 



1. H. supinum. A small branched hairy plant, prostrate or 

 ascending, leaves oval, velvety, deeply pleated, calyx large, 

 corolla very small, almost hidden in it, white, capsule smooth, 

 almost round, nutlets 2 or 4. Waddsuri. 



Common in rice-^elds, Konkan and Deccan ; also in Cutch and 

 Sind. The whole plant is sometimes thickly covered with white 

 hairs. 



2. H. marlfolium. Prostrate, much branched, leaves lanceo- 

 late, calyx large, enclosing the fruit, which is sometimes dis- 

 tinctly 4-lobed, sometimes almost entire. 



On the sea sands, S. Konkan. 



* H. bracteatum is very like this (H. laxiflorum, D.), but erect, and 

 much branched from the root. Poona. Bombay and Deccan (-D.). 



3. H. Indicum (Tiaridium, I. D.}. A coarse, erect much- 

 branched plant, very hairy all over except the fruit, leaves 

 oval, wrinkled, running into the petiole, opposite or alternate, 

 flowers white or lilac arranged in 2 rows up one side of the 

 spike, fruit with the attached calyx mitre-shaped, separating 

 into 2 halves, each 2-seeded. Suryakamal, Wtiirundi. 



A weed often found on rubbish. Throughout India in the moister 

 parts (#.). 



This is a much larger plant than the other species. 



*H. zeylanicum (Tourneforlia subulata, D.). Erect, branched, hairy, 

 leaves lanceolate, sessile, spikes long and slender, flowers yellowish, 

 nutlets 2. Near Gogo (-D.). Throughout India (H.). H. ovalifolium 

 (H. coromandelianum, D.) much like H. supinum, but erect, spikes in 

 pairs, flowers in a waved row along them. Wara. Bhimashankar 

 (D.). * H. Rottleri. Woody and rough with stiff horizontal branches, 

 leaves very small, oblong, racemes long and stiff with distant 

 flowers and ovate bracts, fruit round. Donus (D.). The commonest 

 heliotrope of English and Indian gardens is H. peruvianum. 



TRIBE 4. 



Herbs, ovary distinctly 4-lobed, style simple or bifid arising 



