254 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



Stigma. — Hour-glass or dumbbell -shaped. Very characteristic; \ 



Ovules. — Numerous, anatropous. ;;.*: , 5 ■;•■'■■ c . 



FRUIT. — A cylindrical capsule, with deep linear striations, slightly 

 twisted, sometimes very much so ; .."6-9 inches'long. 



Seeds. — Numerous, compressed, exalbuminous, comose, with a tijft of 

 fine shining white or greyish silky hairs at the top ; fusiform . and 

 slightly rugose (Gartner). ... 



Embryo. — Straight — (De Caisne and Le Maout). - 



Cotyledons,— Foliaceous, cordate, convolute. . . ; 



Radix: — Superior ; slightly. rounded. . ..,;.' 



Both the cotyledons and radix partake of the red or pink colour in the 

 respectively coloured varieties (Gsertner). . \_~\ 



GENERAL REMARKS. ,Z. . r 



It must now be considered that the. Nerium odorum I am here de- 

 scribing is no other than the -Nerium oleander, of the Mediterranean ooast, 

 barring developmental differences due to climatic influences. Linnaeus 

 is after all right in considering that they were identical plants. How- 

 ever much the corolla may vary in the two plants,, we have the high and 

 unquestionable authority of.Brandis, that the fact of a mere climatic 

 variation of the corolla " does not afford distinctive characters of a relia- 

 ble kind. Special parts may vary but yet their variation need not go to 

 multiply varieties which may reasonably be classed under one and the 

 same species." This is so with Nerium odorum^ notwithstanding its 

 single and double-flowered white, pink, and crimson varieties, as will be 

 seen from the synonyms I detail below on the authority of several 

 well-known Botanists. _ 



Synonyms:—;:. '.... .:'.'.•;,;.'.:, ..-,..■..., :j ..*.'..'■ 



1. N. odoratum, Lamk. . ' ,..*•■ , 



2. K latifolium, Mill. ; :..'./. 

 3 * N. indicum, Mill. t > s 



4. N. flavescens, Spin., Jard. S. Sebast (1812). Kew Index. 



5. N. Koltschii, Boss. Diagnosis PI. Or. Nov., VII, p. 21, 1846, 



Kew Index. 



6. JSf. luteum, Nios. Kew Index. 



7. N~. verecundum, Salisb. Kew Index. 



The following garden varieties have been noted as growing in Bombay:— 

 1. The double white (=iV. album plenum) , 



