Diarthron.] cxxx. THTMELJEAGE/E. (J. D. Hooker.) 197 



A slender annual, 6-12 in., usually copiously dicho'tomously branched. Leaves 

 |-f in., nerveless, rather glaucous. Racemes very slender, flowering in. long, fruit- 

 ing 1 in. ; flowers very shortly pedicelled. Perianth in. long, tube very slender, 

 lobes short. Lower anthers smaller than the upper. Fruit ,'5-^ in. long, narrowly 

 ovoid, perianth-tube membranous (vesicular when the fruit does not ripen). 



7. LASIOSIPKON. Fresen. 



Silky shrubs. Leaves opposite or scattered. Flowers 2-sexual, in dense 

 heads with broad bracts. Perianth-tube cylindric, circumsciss above the 

 ovary ; lobes 5, spreading ; scales above the stamens 5-10. Stamens 10, 

 upper or all shortly exserted ; anthers oblong or linear. Disk or short, 

 annulate. Ovary sessile, 1 -celled ; style filiform, stigma capitate. Fruit 

 small, dry, included in the base of the perianth, pericarp membranous. 

 Testa crustaceous; albumen scanty or 0. Species about 25, Trop. and 

 S. African and Trop. Asiatic. 



Xi. eriocephalus, Dene, in Jacquem. Vby. Sot. 148 ; leaves subses- 

 sile from oblong to linear-oblong -lanceolate or oblanceolate acute glabrous 

 or silky beneath, heads globose shortly peduncled, bracts hoary deciduous, 

 perianth densely villous with long silky hairs. Meissn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 

 2. 597 ; Thwaites Enum. 250; Beddome For. Man. 179, t. 25, f. 2. L. spe- 

 ciosus, Dene. L c. 147, t. 150 ; Meissn. in DC. L c. 598 ; Dalz.Sf Gils. Bomb. 

 Fl. 221. L. sisparensis, Hugelii P and insularis, Meissn. in DC. I. c. L. 

 Metzianus, Miq. Analect. But. ii. 3, t. 1. Daphne eriocephala, Wall. Cat. 

 1051. Lachnsea eriocephala, Heyne mss. Gnidia eriocephala, Meissn. in 

 Eegensb. Denkschr. in. 292; Wight Ic. t. 1859. G. sisparensis, Gardn. 

 in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. 1 ; Wight Ic. t. 1860 ; G. insularis, Gardn. I. c. 

 G. monticola, Miq. in Flora 1849, 557. 



DECCAN PENINSULA ; on the Ghats from the Concan southwards, ascending to 

 7000 ft. on the Nilghiris. CEYLON, ascending to 4000 ft. 



A small tree or large much-branched bush, with much of the habit of Edgeworthia 

 Gardneri ; branchleta usually purplish. Leaves 2-3 by |-1 in., not coriaceous, 

 narrowed from the middle or above it to the rounded base, nerves very slender and 

 oblique. Heads 1-2 in. diavn. ; involucral bracts oblong, acute, silky, shorter than 

 the flowers, which are very numerous, densely packed and thickly clothed with 

 white or buff long silky villous hairs. Perianth |-f in. Ipng, yellow ; tube slender ; 

 lobes 4-5, oblong, obtuse ; scales at its mouth very variable, oblong obcordate or 2-fid. 

 I can find no valid characters whereby to distinguish the 5 species here brought to- 

 gether, for which Decaisne and Meissner rely chiefly on the shape of the perianth -scales, 

 and Thwaites has united both speciosus and zeylanicus with eriocephalus. The scales 

 are described as minute obovate and notched in L: eriocephalus ; obcordate in L. 

 sisparensis', linear and bifid in L. speciosus ; linear and entire in L. Metzianus, and 

 small linear and fleshy in L. insularis. Wight further characterizes L. sisparensis 

 by the tawny brown heads. L. Huffelii, Meissn., said to be from the Himalaya, is 

 probably founded on an erroneously ticketed plant, for no species of the genus is known 

 from that region, and Hugel collected in the Nilghiris ; Decaisne indeed referred 

 Hugel's plant doubtfully to L. eriocephalus itself. Beddome confirms this view of 

 the species thus brought under one. 



8. Z.XNOSTO3IA, Wall. 



Shrubs sometimes climbing. Leaves opposite or subopposite. Flowers 

 2-sexual, in small panicled cymes ; bracts 2, on the peduncle, at length 

 greatly enlarged and membranous. Perianth-tube cylindric, base at length 

 turgid, lobes 5, spreading ; scales above the stamens 10, free or connate in 



