64 FLORA OF MADRAS. [Polycarpon. 



9. Polycarpon, Linn. 



Diffuse or erect and dichotomously branched herbs. Leaves 

 opposite or from the presence of axillary fascicles appearing 

 whorled ; stipules scarious. Flowers crowded, with many scarious 

 bracts. Sepals 5, keeled. Petals 5, small, hyaline, entire or 

 notched. Stamens 35. Ovary 1-celled ; style short, 3-fid. 

 Seeds many, ovoid ; embryo nearly straight. 



Perennial with all the flowers subsessile 1. Locjiingiae. 



Annual with the older flowers shorter than their pedicels 



2. tetraphyllum. 



1. POLYCARPON LOEFLINGIAE, Benth. & Hook. f. ; F. B. I. i. 245. 

 HapalosiaLoeflingiae, Wall. ; W. & A. 358. 



Fields and waste places in various Districts. 



2. POLYCARPON TETRAPHYLLUM, Linn. ; Hook. f. Stud. Fl. B. 

 Isles 63. 



Nilgiri Hills, an introduced weed. 



10. Polycarpaea, Linn. 



Herbs, usually erect. Leaves subulate, linear or spathulate ; 

 stipules scarious. Flowers numerous, in lax or contracted cymes. 

 Sepals 5, often coloured, scarious throughout or, rarely, at the 

 margins only. Petals 5, entire toothed or erose. Stamens 5, free 

 or coherent with the petals. Ovary 1-celled; style slender, 3-fid 

 or 3-toothed ; ovules numerous. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds 

 obovoid or compressed. Embryo curved, rarely straight. 



Leaves spathulate, in rosettes at the root and at the internodes ; flowers 



spicate at the ends of subumbellate branches 1. spicata. 



Leaves subulate, not forming rosettes ; flowers in irregular cymes : 

 Plant shortly tomentose ; cymes dense or lax : 



Erect annual or subperennial herb of sandy places ; leaves flat 

 with leaf-fascicles in the axils; stipules much fimbriate, '15 in. 

 long; internodes with scattered hairs; sepals white, '1--2 in. long 



2. corynibosa. 



Much-branched shrub of rock crevices ; leaves with inrolled mar- 

 gins ; leaves in axils few or ; stipules hardly fimbriate, '05 in. 

 long ; internodes densely white-tomentose ; sepals coloured, -1 in. 



long 3 . aurea . 



Plant glabrous; cymes lax; stipules -03 in. long 4. diff-tisa. 



