114 ANNALS OF ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
shorter; stigma shortly bilobed. Follicles with fine transverse veins membranous, cylindric, 
rotundate-truncate at the apex, 8—9 mm, long, somewhat hairy, style persistent, straight, 
erect, 2—2°5 mm. long. Seeds about 2 mm. long, ventral side narrowly keeled, sides 
slightly convex, testa black. 
Prate 125. Aconitum gymnandrum, Maxim. 1, small sized specimen; 2, helmet; 3, lateral; 4, anterior sepal; 5, 
nectary ; 6, stamen ; 7, pedicel with bracts and carpels ; 8, seed ; 9, ripe follicle. 
Paronta Mouraw, Ай. 
(Ай, FL Кеш. ed. 2, vol. III, р. 315, 1811; DC., Prodr. vol. Г, p. 65; Sims, Bot. 
Mag. t. 1158; Anderson, Mon. in Tr. Linn. Soc. XII, p. 252; Huth, Mon. in Engler Bot. 
“аб”, ХІТ, p. 272.) 
Stem branched, base of annual shoots covered with scales, leaves sub-bipinnately 
or biternately divided, lateral leaflets lobed or entire, terminal ones 3—5-]офе or 
cleft with the lobes ovate, petals 8 or more, rarely 5—7, carpels 5, subtomentose with 
coarse short hairs, disc urceolate finally usually irregularly split, follicles divergent. 
| Subspecies arava, Paul Brühl, petals 5—7 (—8), 4—7 em. long, suborbiculate. 
Description.— Annual shoots alternate, covered at the base with numerous imbricate 
many-veined ovate apiculate scales 6—20 mm. long, subcylindrical, glabrous. Leaves 
4—6 on each branch, alternate, long-petioled, large, the uppermost ones often smaller 
and less divided, even trifoliate; blade 7—15 cm. long, primary divisions short-petioled, 
more or less distinctly ternately arranged, themselves usually pinnate and 5-foliolate, 
sometimes trifoliolate; leaflets herbaceous, the lowest pair very short-petioled, broadly 
ovate, subpinnately unsymmetrically and coarsely cleft and subserrate, rarely entire, without 
the petiolule 2--45 cm. long, 1'2—8 ст. broad; intermediate leaflets ovate- or elliptical- 
oblong, entire or scarcely incised-serrate, 2—4 cm. long, 1—2 сш. broad, always 
narrower than the remaining ones; terminal leaflets (3--) 4—5:5 ст. long, 2—5 cm. 
broad, trisect or tripartite or trifid, otherwise entire or the middle division again cleft 
or sparsely and coarsely serrate; all leaflets obtuse or subcuneate, more rarely quite 
cuneate at the base, subacute at the apex, glabrous, below subglaucous, nerves fine 
and scarcely prominent below; petioles semiterete or subterete, scarcely dilated at the 
base, 5—12 cm. long. Flowers solitary on the branches, terminal, large; peduncle strict, 
1—6 см. long. Bracts 3, inserted near the base of the calyx, in the same spiral with 
the calyx leaves and gradually passing into them, oblanceolate-subspatulate, the 
outermost 5—7 сш. long, sparsely incised or incisedly lobed, the innermost 4—5 em, long 
quite entire, all of them again dilated at the base and glabrous. Sepals 5, herbaceous 
reticulately veined, 2—3 cm. long, inner ones a little smaller than the others, entire, 
glabrous, persistent, ultimately reflexed; the outermost oblanceolate conspicuously dilated 
at the base, the second from a broadish base long-acuminate, the third ovate long- 
acuminate, the fourth broad-ovate short-acuminate, the fifth suborbiculate with the shortly 
produced apex subtruncate. Petals 5—7 (—8?), membranous, traversed by much-branched 
nerves, broadly cuneate at the base, erose-sinuate at the margin, 7—8 cm. long, 
white with a rosy hue, with a large dark-purple spot near the base. Stamens numerous? 
gradually increasing in length inwards, the innermost projecting a little beyond 
the disc; filaments narrowly linear, coloured, outer ones about 4, innermost ones 10— 
17 mm, long anthers linear-oblong, apiculate, outer ones 2, inner ones 5—6 mm long. 
