92 ANNALS OF ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCU!TA. 
As specimens with ripe fruits are yet rather scarce, partly in consequence of the tendency with 
paid collectors and amateur botanists to neglect gathering fruits and ripe seeds, partly from the necessity 
of leaving less accessible regions before the fruits have attained maturity, it is not yet possible to establish 
.in all cases the limits within which the structure of the seed has to be considered as variable. For 
instance, it would be very interesting to know whether of two species like Delphinium Brunonianum 
and Delphinium Jacquemontianum, which agree with each other nearly іп every detail, one is a direct 
offspring of the other, or, what in some respects is more probable, whether they constitute corresponding 
members of two parallel series, one with its winged seeds a descendent of D. elatum, the other a 
modification of D. speciosum. There is no genus among Ranunculacew, except perhaps Isopyrum, where 
an accurate knowledge of the structure of the seeds is of such importance for a correct discrimina- 
tion of species as Delphinium, including Aconitum. Fortunately the collections of Indian plants made 
since the publication of the first volume of the Flora of British India have furnished the writer 
with sufficient material to settle several doubtful points and to assign to certain forms their right place 
by making use of characters derived from the seeds. Thus it has been found that D. ranunculifolium 
of Wallich is not a variety of D. elitum, but belongs to the group of D. speciosum; that D. Jacque- 
montianum cannot be referred to D. Brunonianum, but has either to be considered a subspecies of 
D. kashmirianum, or taken as an independent species; that the Khasian forms of D. altissimum must 
be separated from the Himalayan forms and raised to the rank of a species, to which the name of 
D. stapeliosmum has been given by the writer. 
But although a detailed and rather laborious investigation has led the author to the conclusion 
that it is always unsafe to separate or to unite two otherwise closely allied forms unless their seeds be 
known, too much importance should not be attributed to differences in minute details of their structure. 
To eite two examples:—4J. divaricatum., Ledeb., is stated in Boissier’s Flora Orientalis to have seeds 
with narrow cortinuous wrinkles, whilst Hohenacker’s specimens from Georgia have seeds with deeply 
notched, nearly separate scales. D. rugulosum, Boiss., is distinguished from D. persicum, Boiss., by the seeds 
of the former having “distinct adpressed scales,” whilst the seed-scales of the latter are “abbreviated and 
united into transverse wrinkles" As a matter of fact the case is sometimes reversed, аз an inspection of 
figs, 11—14 on plate 119 will show, where 11 and 14 are from specimens of the true D. persicum, whilst 
12 and 18 are from plants which otherwise are good examples of JD. rugulosum. Drawings of the 
seeds of practically all the Delphinia from the region which is here considered are found on plates 119, 
121 and 127. The only Indian вресев of which the seeds are yet unknown is D. pachycentrum, with 
is more western subspecies ftsangense; and this belongs very probably to the pterospermous larkspurs. 
Of no less importance than in Delphinium are the seeds in Aconitum, a point overlooked by Regel 
in his excellent enumeration and definition of Russian aeonites contained in “ Reisen in dem Süden | 
von Ost-sibirien." Тһе seeds of the various species of Aconitum are sufficiently well known to utilise 
them in мо те out a classification, of which the following is an attempt :— 
Section Т.—Тлсостохо1рЕж. Posterior вера with a cylindrical, club-shaped, conical or spur-like, 
protuberance; seeds transversely rugose; flowers yellow, purplish, or red. 
Section П.—Слммлвогреж. Posterior sepal more or less vaulted, sometimes thick-cylindric and 
incurved; seeds lamellato-rugose; flowers blue or variegated, rarely dark-red, purplish- 
brown, yellowish or white. 
Section III.—NaPELLoiDE:.  Posteriors ера] more or less vaulted, seeds three-sided, pyramidal, 
more or less winged along the edges, otherwise smooth ; flowers usually blue, or variegated, 
rarely yellow. 
Examp.es.—I. Lycoctonoideæ : А. Lycoctonum with its innumerable varieties. 
Cammaroidesm: А. variegatum, Linn.; A. paniculatum, Lam.; А. Fischeri, Rchb.; А. volubile, 
Pall.; А. uncinatum, Linn.; А. feror, Wall.; A. luridum, H. f. et T.; А. gymnandrum, Maxim. 
ПІ. Napelloidess: subsection 1.—Napelleas: sepals deciduous, blue or variegated with white: A. 
Napellus, Linn. ; | 
