76 



SYCIDIU3I. 



Bat iii. 271, 291; Wight's Icon 659; Brandts For. Flora 424; Kurz For 

 Flor. Brit Burm. ii. 456; Dak. Ft Bomb. 243.— F. truncate, Vahl 

 Symb. Bot. i. 83; Ham. in Linn. Trans, xv. 143-55.— ^ rhfescens, Vahl, 

 Enum. ii. 203.— F. denticulata, Vahl. Symb. Bot. i. 83; El. Bijd. 472. 

 F. aquatica, Koenig ap. Willd. Spec. PL iv. 1133.— I 7 , scabrella, Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. iii. 5'32 ; Wight's Icon 661 ; Miq. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 

 229 ; Kurz For. Flor. Brit. Burm. ii. 455.— F. repens, Willd. Spec. PL iv. 

 1149 : Koxb. Fl. Ind. iii 535 : Wight's Icon 636; Miq. Lond. Journ. Bot. 



vii. 226 — F. repens and F. rufescens, Ham. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. 143. 

 F. rubifilia, Griff. Not. PL Dicot. 399. t. 557. ii, iii; Covellia Griffithii, 

 Miq. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 467.— F. Assamica, acutiloba, elongata, and 



subpandurceformis, Miq. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 226, 227. t. V a. 231 

 235.— F. grossularioides, Burm. Fl. Ind. 227.— Valli teregam, Rheede 

 Hort. MaL iii. 83. t. 62; Wall. Cat. 4475A to L, 4521.—^. exasperata, not 

 of Roxb. (present in Calcutta set ; absent in Linn. Soc. set). 





A shrub, sometimes creeping on the ground or over rocks, with shortly pubescent 

 stem and branches, the leaves very variable, scabrid. Leaves petiolate, membranous ; general 

 outline usually more or less ovate-elliptic, but varying from elongate-lanceolate to ovate or 

 ovate rotund, often irregularly 3- to many-lobed, with the apex more or less acuminate ; the 

 edges irregularly and coarsely dentate or dentate-repand ; the base blunt, rounded, or cordate, 

 3- to 5-nerved; both surfaces scabrous and covered with short stiff hairs; lateral nerves 

 from 4 to 8 pairs according to the length of the leaf (in the much-lobed leaves the nervation 

 is palmate) ; length of blade 2 to 4 in., petioles varying from -5 to 2*5 in. ; stipules 2 to 

 each leaf, scarious, ovate, glabrous or nearly so, '3 to *4 in. long. Receptacles on peduncles 

 of varying length, solitary, axillary, spherical to elongated-pyriform, always with a more 

 or less prominent mammillate umbilicus which is but imperfectly closed by bracts, more 

 or less hispid-scabrid and sometimes verrucose when young; when ripe nearly smooth, 

 dark orange, and from *4 to 1 in. long ; basal bracts minute, triangular, glabrous, (in the much 

 elongated forms appearing to rise from below the base of the receptacle); peduncle 



proper from *4 to 1 in. long. Male flowers with a 3 or 4-cleft gamophyllous perianth 



ind a single stamen. Gall flowers with perianth like the males; the ovary ovoid, smooth, 



with short lateral style. Fertile female flower with gamophyllous 4-cleft perianth; the 



achene subglobular, minutely tuberculate, with a hyaline, viscid external coat ; style long, 



lateral; stigma cylindric. 



On the plains in the warmer parts of India, in Ceylon, Burmah, and the Malayan 

 countries. Common in grassy places, especially near water. 



This is a polymorphic species, and often presents great variety in foliage even in the 

 same plant. I have examined the types of most of the species of Blume and Miquel which 

 I have reduced here, and I am convinced that they are mere forms of one widely-spread 

 species. The only forms sufficiently constant to be separated as varieties appear to me to 

 be the two following : 



Var. 1. scabkella (-F. scabrella, Roxb.). Leaves narrow, shortly petiolate, not 



lobed; receptacles shortly pedicellate, globular or sub-pyriform. 



















