ON SELECT INDIAN PLANTS. %6l 



ean word. Cdmalatd may also mean a mythological 

 plant, by which all desires are granted to such as in- 

 habit the heaven of Indra; and if ever flower was 

 worthy of paradise, it is our charming Jpomoea. Many 

 species of this genus, and of its near ally the Convol- 

 vulus, grow wild in our Indian provinces ; some 

 spreading a purple light over the hedges, some snow- 

 white with a delicate fragrance; and one breathing, 

 after sunset, the odour of cloves ; but the two genera 

 are so blended by playful nature, that very frequently 

 they are undistinguishable, by the corols and stigmas : 

 for instance, the Mundavalli, or Beautiful Climber, of 

 Rheede (of which I have often watched the large 

 spiral-buds, and seen them burst into full bloom) is 

 called Ipomoea by Linnaeus, and Convolvulus (ac- 

 cording to the Supplement) by Kcenig ; and it 

 seems a shade between both. The divisions of the 

 perianth are egg-oblong, pointed ; free above, indi- 

 cated below -, its corol and tube, those of an Ipomoea ; 

 its f laments of different lengths, with anthers arrowed, 

 jointed above the barbs, furrowed hak-incumbent ; 

 the stigmas, two globular heads, each globe an aggre- 

 gate of minute roundish tubercles ; the stem not quite 

 smooth, but here and there bearing a few small 

 prickles ; the very large corol exquisitely white, with 

 greenish ribs, that seem to act as muscles in expand- 

 ing the contorted bud ; its ddour in the evening very 

 agreeable ; less strong than the primrose, and less 

 flint than the lily. The clove-scented creeper, which 

 blows in my garden at a season and hour when I 

 cannot examine it accurately, seems of the same 

 genus, if not of the sarrle species, with xhzMurulavalh. 



S3 21, Ca- 



