182 AC ANTE ACE ^E. \ BLEPHARIS. 



Fruit a small oblong capsule, seed-bearing throughout Seeds 

 15-30 in each ceL, small, globose or cuboid, glandular or nearly 

 smooth when mature, retinacula none, hihim hollowed. - Species 

 about 40, in 8. E. Asia, .Malaya, Australia and Brazil. 



S. glutinosa, 0. Kuntze Rev. Gen.i, 497 ; Ebermaieraglutinosa, Wall.; 

 F. P. I. iv y 396; Prain Beng. PL 798. E. glauca, T. Anders, in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. ix, 450 (not of Nees). 



Stems many, 12-18 in long 1 , trailing, pubescent. Leaves all opposite, 

 shortly stalked, about 1 in. long, elliptic, subobtuse. entire, tapering 

 to the base, minutely pV.bescent or glabrous. Heads pseudo-axillary, on 

 short branches, 2-8 fll., oubglobose ; bracts 5 in. long, narrowly obovate- 

 oblong, viscid. Calyx-segments viscidly pubescent, one slightly longer 

 than the others. Corolla in. long, bluish with dark veins, pubescent 

 outside. Stigma with one lobe oblong, the other bifid. 



Abundant within the area, often met with in rice-fields and on swampy 

 ground. DISTRIB. Punjab Plain, Rajputana, and C. India to N. and 

 C. Bengal, also in Sylhet. 



5. BLEPKARIS, Juss. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iy, 478. 



Herbs or undershrnbs, often rigid or prickly. Leaves opposite or 

 4 in a whorl, subentire or toothed and sometimes prickly. Spikes 

 terminal or on suppressed Literal branches, strobilate, 4-ranked or 

 capitate and few or 1 -flowered ; lower bracteoles leaf-like, upper 

 linear. Calyx deeply 4-partite ; segments unequal, in opposite pairs, 

 one of the larger pair e margin ate or 2-lobed, the 2 inner segments 

 much shorter and narrower. Corolla 2-lipped, tube rigid, upper lip 

 subobsolete ; lower spreading, 3-lobed, purple blue or white. Stamens 

 didynamous; filaments thick, rigid, connective of the lower stamens 

 ] roduced ; anthers with one large cell densely bearded on the margin, 

 the other cell small and obsolete. Disk annular, inconspicuous. 

 Ovary glabrous, widi 2 ovules in each cell, style linear, stigma 

 shortly 2-fid. Fruit an oblorg or ellipsoid capsule, 2- or 4-seeded. 

 Seeds compressed, suborbicular, echinate or ciliate. Species about 50, 

 mostly African, 5 in India. 



Flowers in short heads, solitary or 2 or 3 together. Herbs : 

 Leaves petioled, up to 2| in. long, thin acute . 1. B. loerhavicefolia. 

 Leaves subsessile, ^-1 in. long, fleshy, obtuse . 2. B. molluginifoha, 



Flowers in strobiliform spikes, A small shrub 

 with a very short stem 3. B. sindica. 



