SCOPARIA. ] SCROPHULARIACE&. 153 



slightly enlarged in fruit ; lobes 3, shallow, broadly ovate. Corolla 

 bluish, tube included within the calyx. Stamens 2. Capsule about 

 as long as the calyx. 



Somewhat abundant within the area, on margins of stagnant water as 

 at Saharanpur (Royle), Moradabad (T. Thomson) and also near Jhansi 

 in Merwara (Duthie). DISTRIB. : Mt. Abu in Rajputana, Behar, 

 Konkan to S. India and Ceylon. It has been collected also in Trop. 

 Africa (Senegambia) and in Australia. Very similar in habit to 

 Limosella aquatica and Microcarpcea muscosa. The latter may very 

 possibly be found within the area of this flora if carefully searched 

 for in similar localities. It may be distinguished by its acutely 5-fid. 

 tubular calyx. 



17. SCOPARIA, Linn. ; PI. Brit. Ind. iv, 289. 



Branched glabrous or pubescent herbs or undershrubs. Leaves 

 opposite or whorled, entire or toothed, punctate. Flowers small, 

 white or yellow, axillary, solitary or 2-nate, bracteoles none. Calyx 

 campanulate, 4-5-partite, imbricate in bud. Ccrolla rotate, 4-tid., 

 throat densely bearded ; lobes obtuse, subequal. Stamens 4, sub- 

 equal, filaments filiform; anthers sub sagittate ; cells distinct, 

 parallel or diverging. Ovary 2-celled ; style subclavate, stigma 

 notched or truncate. Fruit a small globose or ovoid septicidal 

 capsule; valves membranous, entiie ; margins inflexed, separating 

 from the placentiferous axis. Seeds many, obovoid, angled, 

 scrobicuLite. Species 5 or 6, all American, one of which is sporadic 

 in Asia, Africa and Australia. 



S. dulcis, Linn. 8p. PL 116 ; F.B.L iv, 289 ; Prain Beng. PL 772 ; 

 Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 310. 



A glabrous leafy undershrnb, up to 3 ft. high ; branches many, erect or as- 

 cending. Leaves opposite or ternate, 1-2 in. long, lanceolate or elliptic- 

 lanceolate, or obtuse, shortly petiole d, margins serrate. Flowers many, 

 in terminal panicles ; pedicels t4 in. long, slender, rigid. Calyx 4- 

 partite, segments oblong. Corolla white, -f in. in diam., tube very 

 short. Capsule globse, in. in diam. 



Often met with as a weed of cultivated ground, more especially in the 

 sub-Himalayan tracts of Eohilkhand and N. Oudh. Flowers March- 

 June DISTRIB : Abundant all over Bengal where, according to 

 Clarke, it was unknown in Roxburgh's time. The first record of its 

 occurrence in Bengal was, by Voigt in 1845. It has been found 

 recently by Woodrow in a salt swamp near Bombay. The plant is^ 

 a native of Trop. America, whence it has spread more or less 

 throughout the tropics. 



