NAPELLUS. 155 
Roots biennial, paired, tuberous ; daughter-tuber oblong-cylindric, up to 95 
long and 5—6 mm. thick, bearing few fine root-fibres, bark thi : uu 4 mm, 
smooth, fracture whitish, farinaceous, cambium discontinuous forintig 4 i ie 
very slender strands, arranged in a ring, taste slightly bitter borse id ti ded e. 
sation; mother-tuber more or less shrunk, brown, wrinkled with тр, filiform 
root-fibres. Lnnovation-bud conic-oblong, up to 6 mm. long, scales ovate to малады 
oblong with 1 or (the outer) 9 strong ribs, long-persistent round the base of ^t 
flowering stem, finally decaying with the exception of the ribs, Stem erect or 
cending, from a slender, short (1—3 em.) hypogeous | 
; base, simple, or branched from 
below, terete, slender, crispo- or reversedly pubescent or spreadingly hirtellous parti- 
cularly in the upper part, ultimately glabrescent below, epigeeous part 3—10 cm., rarely 
: x E | сй es еы ы or more, cóetaneous with the flowers, gathered 
ypogsous part of the stem, 
rarely to 10 cm.) slender petioles dilated at the base; blades slightly fleshy adpress- 
edly pubescent, orbicular-cordate ог orbicular-reniform in outline, with a wide or 
narrow sinus (3—8 mm. deep), 8—15 mm. high from the sinus to the top, 19—95 ст 
across, 3—5-palmati-partite to 3—%, rarely deeper, divisions subequal or equal shorts: 
2—3- lobed, lobes sparingly lobulate or crenate, lobules or crenae obtuse or раа, 
nerves inconspicuous; upper cauline leaves, if any, very few, on short or very didit 
petioles, with blades similar to the lower, but much smaller and less divided, passing 
into the bracts. Inflorescence a short, loose, few-flowered raceme or corymb or reduced 
to a solitary flower, sometimes with one or few slender 1-flowered additional branches 
from the axils of basal leaves, spreadingly pubescent; pedicels slender, the lowest 
about as long as the primary axis, minutely 2-bracteolate; sepals reddish blue, paler 
when dry, with saturated veins, pubescent without, persistent, uppermost navicular, 
erostrate, obliquely erect, 16—90 mm. long (from the apex to the base), 6—8 mm. broad; 
lateral sepals oblique, orbicular-obovate, scarcely clawed, 16—18 mm. long, 14—16 mm. 
broad; lower sepals elliptic, obtuse, 8—12 mm. long. Nectaries glabrous, extinguisher- 
shaped; claw slightly curved about 12 mm. long; hood leaning forward ог almos: 
horizontal, short, wide, very obtuse, anteriorly gibbous; lip crenulate or ‘shortly 
bilebed, broad, short. Filaments rigidly hairy above the middle, winged below, 
wings ending in teeth or suddenly contracted. Carpe 5, densely tomentose, соп- 
niving, oblong, abruptly contracted into the style. Follicles surrounded by the dry 
persistent sepals, oblong, almost straight along the back, truncate, 10—19 mm. long, 
hairy. Seeds brown, ovoid to obpyramidal, obliquely truncate at the top, not quite 
2 mm. long, obscurely winged and transversely lamellate. 
DisrRIBUTICN : High Alpine zone of North Sikkim and Chumbi, 
SIKKIM: Palung plains, 15,600 ft, J.D. Hooker! (Hb. Kew and Cale); from 
Tengu to Giagong, Praia! (Hb. Cule.\.—Caumur: Kung-met, King’s Coll 306! 307 
(Hb. Kew and Cale.) and without precise locality, King’s Co: 317! (Hb. Cale.) 
VERNACULAR NAME: Unknown. 
PROPERTIES AND USES: Unknown. 
Two of Prain's specimens collected at Tangu are much taller than the rest, and the tubers are 
50 mm. long, bus scarcely more than 8 mm. thick. The leaves are also larger (up to 9:5 em. long) 
and more cut up. The flowers are, however, exactly as in typical A. maviculare. 
Pirate 101. Aconitum naviculare Stapf—1, A complete specimen, in flower; 2, a 
specimen in flower, without tubers; 3, а specimen in fruit—natural size; 4, a flower in 
on long (2 5—5, 
Ann. Roy. Bor. Garp. Carc, Vor. X. 
