22 JO tJRNAL, BOMB A T NA TtJRAL BISTOR V SOCIETY, Vol. XI V. 



straight sharp conoid prickles, the base of the cone resting on the 



pericarp. 



S Dehiscence — irregular (Trimen). Clarke describes it thus : — 



" Capsule sub-indehiscent, or irregularly dehiscent near the apex." 



Seeds — very numerous, somewhat compressed, sub-reniform, 

 close-packed ; pale-brown when the fruit is mature and dry ; 

 albuminous. Trimen says that the seeds are *' nearly smooth.''^ The 

 general testimony, however, is that the outer coat or the cuticle of the 

 seed-is " nt^os^." It is so, not only when the seed is examined old 

 and dry, but also when it is fresh. There is an excellent figure in 

 Guy and Ferrier's Med. Jurisprudence (page 534, 5th Ed., 1881), 

 of the rough honey-combed cuticle of the dry seed of D. stramonium, 

 a congener of the plant I am describing, the seed of which latter is 

 not far different from that of D. fastuosa. A detailed description 

 of the seed will be given further, where the Embkyo is also described 

 in detail. It is enough to say here that the embryo is curved round 

 the central endosperm, that is to say the embryo is peripheric. In this 

 the seed of D. fastuosa resembles in structure the seed of D. 

 stramonium. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The description given above is mostly based on that of Dr. Trimen's 

 as published in Part III of his elaborate and exhaustive Flora of Ceylon, 

 a work, which it is much to be regretted, he did not live to complete. 

 The first part of his Flora of Ceylon was published in 1 893. The 

 second part appeared in 1894, and the third in 1895. The climate of 

 Ceylon, where Dr. Trimen worked zealously from 1879 as the Director 

 of the beautiful Gardens of Peradeniya, proved fatal to him. He died 

 on the 16th October 1896 to the regret of the entire botanical world, 

 without finishing his Flora of Ceylon. It was left to the venerable 

 veteran botanist Sir Joseph Hooker to bring out the fourth and fifth 

 parts of the work undertaken by Dr. Trimen. Dr. Trimen's Ceylon 

 Flora must be considered an elaborate supplement to Sir Joseph 

 Hooker's Standard Flora of British India. The latter is the conjoint 

 work of several distinguished botanists, whereas the former is the work 

 of a single hand, the product of the patient researches of a man 

 possessed of a wide and marvellous capacity for original botanical 

 work, 



