176 ACANTHACE^. 



2-3-nate. Flowers, with a strong unpleasant odour. Calyx-segments i in. 

 long, lanceolate, acute, hairy. Corolla 1 in. long, hairy outside, pinkish- 

 purple and often marked with yellow. Capsule about 1 in. long, erect, 

 hispid, beak short, valves separating half-way down. Seeds black or 

 white, glabrous. 



Extensively cultivated within the area during the rainy season, but 

 chiefly as a mixed crop. Sometimes met with as a naturalized 

 weed. In other parts of India it is usually grown as a pure crop. 

 There are two well-marked varieties, black-seeded and white-seeded ; 

 the former yields the best oil and is therefore more abundantly grown. 

 The oil is largely used in India for culinary purposes, as well as for 

 burning in lamps, and it is also employed in anointing the body and in 

 the manufacture of soap and perfumes. The seeds of the white-seeded 

 variety are often eaten, chiefly in the form of sweetmeats. The oil 

 and seeds are very largely exported to Europe, for particulars of which 

 trade see Watt's " Commercial Products of India," p. 987. There 

 is considerable doubt as to the native country of this plant. Decandolle 

 regarded it as having come originally from the Malay Archipelago, 

 Whilst other authors consider it be of Indian or of African origin. 



MARTTNIA DIANDRA Glox.; F. B. I. iv, 386 ; Watt E. D.; Prain Beng 

 PL 791 ; Coolte Fl. Bomb, ii, 339. Vern. Bichu. (Tiger-claw or Devil's 

 tjlaw). A tall coarse herb. Leaves large, opposite, cordate, glutinous. 

 Flowers diandrous, rose-coloured. Fruit large, woody, beaked by two 

 strong curved spines. Common within the area and in other parts of 

 India on roadsides and in waste places, flowering during the rainy 

 season. The plant is a native of Mexico 



LXXXV.-ACANTHACEJE. 



Herbs or shribs, rarely trees. Leaves opposite, usually entire, 

 exstipulate. Flowers nearly always irregular, in cymes racemes or 

 spikes, rarely solitary ; bracts lar^e or small or none ; bracteoles usually 

 2, sometimes more and forming an epicalyx. Calyx 5-or 4-partite 

 or (in Thunbergia) minute and multifid. Corolla 2-lipped or 

 subequally 5-lobed, lobes imbricate or twisted in bud. Stamens 

 4 or 2, inserted on the corolla-tube ; anthers 2-or 1-celled, the cells 

 sometimes remote. Disk often conspicuous. Ovary superior, 2- 

 celled ; style simple, filiform or swollen below ; stigma usually 2- 

 lubed, the lobes often unequal ; ovules 1 or more in each cell, in one 

 or two series, anatropous. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, the valves often 

 elastically recurved and the septum splitting. Seeds usually hard, 

 attached (except in a few genera) to recurved subacute supports 

 (retinacula), ovoid or compressed, smooth rugose or rarely hispid, 

 usually ex albuminous. Species upwards of 2,000, in tropical and 

 warm temparate regions. 



