PHRYNIUM PARVIFLORUM. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN. 
Gen. Cuar.— Anther single, lateral, attached to the margin of the filament; style incurved at the apex, 
grooved ; Capsule 3-celled. 
Spec. Cuar. — Leaves Radical, long-petiolated, broad-lanceolate, ineequilateral, strongly nerved; Petioles gangli- 
onated ; flower-spike bursting from the petiole; Capsule, only one cell, fertile. 
Syy.—Roxburgh, Phrynium Parviflorum, Flor. Ind. vol. I. Denies 
Small-flowered Phrynium. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root perennial, running horizontally, tuberous, with strong hairy fibres; leaves radical, broad-lanceolate, strongly 
nerved, inzequilateral, smooth on both sides, intire ; petioles generally longer than the leaf, round, green, finely 
villose, attached to the leaf by a smooth round ganglion an inch long; spike bursting from the inner side of the 
floral petiole, somewhat above the middle, from a sheathing vagina having a tuft of fine hairs at the base on the 
outside, and a smaller tuft at the apex within; common bractes lanceolate, acute, finely pointed, green, slightly 
hairy, with a smooth, pellucid, membranous margin ; inner bractes lanceolate, white, membranous, with a ridge 
down the middle on the back ; flowers almost inconspicuous, two to each bracte; calyx of three leaflets, lanceolate- 
acute, smooth, white; corolla tubular, with a double limb; outer limb of three segments, equal, intire, waved, 
reflexed, white, slightly villous; inner limb bilabiate ; upper lip of two segments, equal, obovate, intire, somewhat 
undulate, orange, on a short claw; claw white ; lower lip small, hooded, enveloping the parts of fructification when 
young, but detached when the flower is expanded, orange; filament petal-like, erect, ovate, tipt with orange, one 
margin thickened, with the anther attached near the apex; anther single, linear, grooved ; style erect, grooved, 
incurved at the apex; stigma funnel-shaped, compressed, declined ; germen inferior, oblong-ovate, with a few 
scattered hairs round the base of the calyx, three-celled, one only fertile. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
‘This genus was established by Willdenow from the Phyllodes placentaria of Loureiro, which Willdenow 
denominated Phrynium Capitatum, and referred to the figure in Hortus Malabaricus, Tom. ai. tab. 34, which had 
been erroneously considered as Pontederia ovata. A much more correct figure of the Phrynium Capitatum is 
given by Dr. Roxburgh in his “ Description of Monandrous Plants,” in Asiatic Researches, vol. ai. p-. 323. 
The Phrynium Parviflorum grows to the height of three feet or upwards. It is a native of the Eastern - 
parts of Bengal, and was sent from Calcutta by Dr. Wallich, to the Botanic Garden, in Liverpool, in 1820; where 
it flowered in July, 1823, and is now figured for the first time. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Calyx and Corolla. 
2. Sections of the upper lip of the inner limb of Corolla. 
3. Filament and anther, style and stigma, with the lower lip of Corolla. 
4. Lower lip detached. 
5. Style and stigma detached. 
6. Filament and anther detached. 
7. Outer bracte. 
8. Inner bracte. 
9. Calyx detached 
