Polycarpon.] xvm. CARYOPHYLLEJE. (Edgeworth & Hook, f.) 245 



1. P. Xioeflingiee, Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. PI. i. 153, in note ; glabrous or 

 more or less pubescent, leaves cuneate linear oblong or spathulate, cymes 

 terminal or in the forks, petals linear truncate, tip toothed. P. depressa, 

 DC. Prodr. iii. 375. P. lanuginosa, Wall. Cat. 1515 b and ? P. Benthamii, 

 1514. Lceflingia indica, Retz. Obs. 38; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 165; Pharnaceum 

 depressum, Linn. Mont. n. 564. Hapalosa Loeflingiae, Watt. Gal. 6962 ; 

 Wight & Am. Prodr. 358. 



Throughout the hotter parts of INDIA, in fields and waste places. DISTRIB. Tropical 

 Asia and Africa. 



A weed, erect or diffuse; branches 6-10 in. Leaves -f in., acute or obtuse. 

 Cymes fascicled or panicled. Flowers | in. diam. Sepals subequal, obtusely keeled. 

 Petals entire or notched. Seeds subcylindric, hilum lateral and subbasal ; embryo 

 nearly straight. 



19. FOLYCARFJEA, Lamk. 



Annual or perennial, usually erect herbs. Leaves flat, opposite, or ap- 

 pearing whorled from the presence of axillary fascicles of leaves ; stipules 

 scarious. Flowers numerous, in effuse or contracted or capitate cymes. 

 Sepals 5, scarious and often coloured, rarely scarious at the margins only. 

 Petals 5, entire 2-toothed or with the margins erose. Stamens 5, subperi- 

 gynous, free or cohering together and with the petals into a tube. Ovary 

 1 -celled ; style slender 3-fid or 3-dentate ; ovules numerous. Capsule 

 3-valved. Seeds obovoid or compressed. Embryo curved, rarely straight, 

 t DiSTKiB. Species about 24, natives of warm climates. 



1. P. corymbosa, Lamk. III. n. 2798 ; hoary tomentose or glabrescent, 

 leaves narrow linear or subulate pseudo-verticillate, stipules lanceolate or 

 subulate, cymes terminal, sepals lanceolate very acute much exceeding the 

 capsules. DC. Prodr. iii. 374; Wall. Cat. 1571; Wt. Ic. t. 712; W. & A. 

 Prodr. 358. P. spadicea, Lamk. DC. I.e. 374; W. & A. 357 ; Wall. Cat. 

 1512 b ; Wt. in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. t. 6. P. densiflora, Wall. Cat. 1513. 

 P. indica, Lamk. Encycl. v. 483. Paronychia subulata, Lamk. Encycl. v. 25. 

 Achyrantb.es corymbosa, Linn. ; Wittd. Celosia corymbosa, Willd. ? Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. i. 681. Mollia spadicea and corymbosa, WUld. 1 Spreng. Syst. i. 

 795. Lahaya spadicea and corymbosa, Schult. ? Syst. v. 405 ; Burm. Zeyl. 

 t. 65, f. 2.Rheede Hort. Mai. t. 66. 



WESTERN PENINSULA, and CEYLON, CENTRAL and N.W. INDIA, and SINDH, ascending 

 the WESTERN HIMALAYA to 7000 ft. ; BIRMA, Wallich. DISTRIB. Tropical Asia, Africa, 

 Australia, and America. 



An erect or decumbent annual or perennial herb, 6-12 in. high, much dichotomously 

 branched. Leaves -1 in., acuminate acute or obtuse, much exceeding the stipules. 

 Flowers fa in. diam., in dense excessively branched silvery cymes. Sepals scarious, 

 white or coloured, glabrous or pilose, much exceeding the petals and the capsule. Dr. 

 Wight found it impossible (111. ii. 44) to separate P. spadicea from P. corymbosa, even 

 as a well marked variety, and we may add that we have equally failed to discriminate 

 either those species or their synonymy. The following seems to be a well-marked form, 

 to which the name spadicea might have been applied with propriety. 



VAR. aurea, Wight 111. ii. 44, t. 110; smaller, densely tomentose, excessively 

 branched, flowers much smaller highly-coloured. 



2. P. diffusa, Wight & Am. in Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. 91 ; glabrous, 

 slender, leaves narrow-linear or subulate pseudo-verticillate, sepals ovate- 

 lanceolate very acute not much exceeding the petals or capsule. Wight III. 

 ii. 44. 



WESTERN PEMNSULA ; near Tuticoreen, Wight. 



