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MOKPHOLOGY, 



The genus Gomphostemma belongs to the Labiate tribe PRASIEJJ. It consists of 

 coarse perennial herbs, sometimes (G. lucidum) almost shrubby, with obscurely 4-angled 

 sterns, sometimes deeply grooved (G, strobUinum). The rootstock is woody, the roots 

 usually being fibrous, sometimes, however, with fusiform tubers interspersed (G. Mastersii), 

 The leaves are always opposite, generally petioled, but sometimes the petioles are short 

 (G. Scortechinii) or almost absent (G. niveum). The lamina is usually large and generally 

 ovate or elliptic, less often lanceolate or oblanceolate ; the margin is usually serrate or 

 •renate, rarely (G. niveum) subentire, nearly always acute at the apex and cuneate at the 

 base. The stems are either scurfily scabrid or densely tomentose with stellate hairs; the 

 petioles are the same, but are often softly tomentose when the stem is scabrid only; the 

 under surface of the leaf is tomentose with stellate hairs, usually uniformly so, though 

 sometimes (G. Mastersii) the tomentum is confined to the nerves only; the upper surface 

 is very rarely stellate-hirsute (G. velutinum, Mastersii), but is usually hirsute or hispid with 

 simple hairs, very rarely glabrous (G. niveum, melissi folium). The bracts are nearly always 

 small, but are usually foliar, tomentose externally with stellate hairs, hispid or hirsute 

 above or less often glabrous, especially in the centre. The bracteoles, to which the same 

 remarks apply, are small and usually linear or lanceolate, and shorter than the calyx. 

 The flowers, which are large for this order, are whorled ; the whorls are either condensed 

 into terminal spikes or else are axillary and distant, in the lower axils or along the stem 

 below the leaves, the upper axils being barren. The calyx is generally sessile, and the 

 whorls are generally crowded ; in some species with crowded flowers the calyx is pedi- 

 celled (G. Scortechinii); in a few species the whorls are occasionally (G. Mastersii, 

 G. strolilinum var. acaulis), or as a rule (G. parviflorum, G. pedunculatum) laxly cymose with 

 pedicelled flowers. The calyx is campanulate, 10-nerved and 5-toothed, the teeth being 

 almost equal and varying from broadly triangular ( G. pedunculatum) to linear ( G. crinitum); 

 the outside is even or ribbed, and always distinctly stellate-tomentose ; the inside of 

 the tuhe often is glabrous within (G. Curtisii, nutans): the teeth are, however, hirsute; 

 usually both tube and teeth within are uniformly hispid or hirsute with straight hairs. 



In most cases the calyx is some shade of green; in two (£, pedunculatum, Curtisii), it 



is claret-red; in one (G. Mastersii) it is purplish. In two species (G. Heyneanum, Hems- 

 l lanum) the corolla hardly exceeds the calyx ; in all the rest it is distinctly, and in 

 most cases much, longer than the calyx. The corolla tube below is slender and uniform, 

 and where it is enclosed in the calyx is glabrous externally. This uniform portion is 

 hirsute anteriorly within in § Pogosiphon ; in the other divisions of the genus the tube 



within is quite glabrous. The upper portion of the tube is always enlarged ; in § Steno- 



stoma this enlargement is slight and the whole tube is nearly straight ; in the rest of the 

 genus the enlargement is considerable, and the inflated part of the tube is distinctly 

 incurved. ^ The limbus is 2-lipped, the lips being larger in § EugomphOstemma than in the 

 other divisions of the genus; the upper lip is vaulted and usually entire, rarely emargin- 

 ate, the lower is patent and 3-fid with a subtruncate mid-lobe larger than the others. The 

 corolla is generally yellow, rarely white, still more rarely pink or purplish. The 4 stamens 

 ascend under the upper lip, the anterior pair being the longer, the filaments are always 

 pubescent with simple hairs, and are inserted at the top of the uniform portion of the tube ; 

 the anthers approach each other in pairs ; their cells are transverse, equal, parallel, and 

 naked. The disc is subequal or is slightly swollen behind; the ovary is 4-partite, glabrous 

 or (less often) hirsute with simple hairs; the style is glabrous or rarely (G. Scortechinii, lucU 

 um) hirsute with simple spreading hairs near the apex; the stigma is 2-fid with subulate 





