92 ANNALS OF ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, 0۵07 
< 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 пре» 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 ав variable.. For 
instance, it would be very interesting to know whether of two Species like سس‎ Bruen 
and Delphinium Jacquemontianum, which agree with each other nearly in every detail, one is a direct 
offspring of the otker, 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 Zanunculacee, except perhaps Zsopyrum, where 
un 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. elatum, 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. kasħmirianum, 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. зарейовтит 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 unsafə 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 cite two examples:—D. 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 “abbı eviated and 
united into transverse wrinkles.” As a matter of fact the case is sometimes reversed, as 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 D. 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 species of which the seeds are yet unknown is D. pachycentrum, with 
із more western subspecies ¢sangense; 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 aconites contained in “Reisen in dem Siiden 
von Ost-sibirien.” The seeds of the various species of Aconitum are sufficiently we!l known to utilise 
them in working out а classification, of which the following is an attempt :— 
" Section Т.—Тлсостохошеж. Posterior sepal with a cylindrical, club-shaped, conical or spur-like, 
protuberance; seeds transversely rugose; flowers yellow, purplish, or red. 
‘Section П.--Саммакотеж. Posterior sepal more or less vaulted, sometimes thick-cylindrie and 
: _ ineurved; seeds lamellato-rugose ; flowers blue or variegated, rarely daık-red, purplish- 
2. s brown, yellowish or white. | | 
Section 111-2 Posteriors epal more or less vaulted, sceds three-sided, pyramidal, 
| _ more or less winged along the edges, otherwise smooth ; flowers usually blue, or variegated, 
rarely yellow. | : 
B 8 Cammaro | idee : A. variegatum, Linn. ; A. paniculatum, Lam.; A. Fischeri, Rehb.; A. volubile, 
11! all; A. uncinatum, Linn. ; A. feroz, Wall. ; A. luridum, H. f. et Т.; A, gymnandrum, Maxim. 
: x . | | | ша ay — | nins к ен: sepals deciduous, blue | or variegated with white: A. 
