THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 347 



Veenation. — Involute. 

 Stipules. — Absent. 



FLOWERS. — Usually about 1| — 2 inches in length ; not persistent; 

 falling before the fruit is mature or even formed ; situated on spikes. 

 Inflorescence. — In terminal or axillary spikes (racemes). 

 When the spikes are axillary, they arise from the upper axils of branches. 

 Spikes usually simple, 1 — 2 feet long. Eachis of the spike glabrous. 

 The flowers are arranged on the rachis alternately an inch or more 

 apart, sometimes only on one side of the rachis,* thus forming 

 unilateral spikes or racemes. The flowers are never crowded together. 

 They are sometimes erect, sometimes transverse, and sometimes bent 

 downward or slightly drooping. 



^Estivation. — Of Calyx, plicate (Blume) ; of petals contorted; often 

 sinistrorse, sometimes dextrorse. 



The flowering time is said by Blume to be in May and June. On this 

 side of India and in European conservatories the plant is well known to 

 flower more than once a year. There is, however, a short resting period 

 after the whole plant has once flowered. The blossom does not all 

 appear at once on the whole plant, but branch after branch throws 

 out spikes which bear flowers in due time. Rheede says that the 

 plant flowers throughout the year, but especially in the rainy season. 

 Bkacts and Beacteoles. — Shorter than the calyx. 

 Beacts. — 2, superior lateral ; 3 says Roxburgh. Often scarious on 

 the margin ; ovate or ovate-oblong. 



Beacteoles. — 2, il conform with the bracts " (Kurz). Rheede de- 

 scribes 3 small bracteoles, glabrous foliaceous. Rheede's description 

 seems to me to be more accurate ; at any rate 3 bracteoles are more 

 common. The bracteoles are persistent; even after the flowers 

 have fallen, for a long time the bracteoles are to be seen intact, of red- 

 dish-brown colour. They are greenish when young. Each set of 

 bracteoles, whether 2 or 3, contains a single flower. The flowers are 

 without any odour. 



* " The flowers," says Sir William Hooker, " are remarkably secund, that is, turned to one 

 side" (Curtis's Bot. Magazine, Tab. 5363). This is well illustrated in the plate given under that 

 number in Curtis. Curtis's plate 230 in an earlier volume of his Bot. Magazine bears 

 bilateral flowers like those in plate N of my series." 



