THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 349 



pistil- 

 Ovary. — Free ; sessile ; superior ; 1-celled ; 5-angular above, or 

 64 5-gibbous " as Boissier terms it ; narrowed at apex. 



Style. — Single, slender, whitish ; with 5 small segments, quite 

 indiscernible and alternating with the stamens. Base of the style hairy. 

 The union of the segments is a diagnostic character of this plant. 



Stigmas. — 5, "capillary, furnished on their inner surface with 

 several lines of glands" (La M. and Dec, Mrs. Hooker's Transla- 

 tion, page 525). 



Ovule. — 1 pendulous from a basal ascending funicle ; anatropal. 



FRUIT.— A membranous capsule, circumciss or rupturing near the 

 apes ; included in the tubular persistent calyx. Blume says that the 

 dehiscence is valvate ; others say that the pericarp of the fruit dehisces 

 in a subvalvate manner. 



SEED. — Cylindrical or oblong-rotund, with 5 longitudinal striae ; 

 pendulous ; " inverted sometimes, appearing erect by the union of the 

 funicle with its integuments." — (La M. and Dec.) The seed is green 

 when young, black when mature, adnate to the integument at its upper 

 extremity. 



Integument. — Simple. 



Albumin. — Farinaceous ; slight ; separated into two parts by the 

 embryo. 



Embryo. — Within the albumen ; straight. 



Radicle. — Superior ; short. 



Cotyled ons. — Flat. 



Plumule. — Slightly rough. 



REMARKS. 



The plant has the following synonyms : — 



1. Thela coccinea (Loureiro, Flora Cochinchinensis, vol. I, p. 119, 

 1790). 



2. Thalia coccinea (Loureiro, Flor. Cochin., Ed. Willd., vol. I 

 p. 147.)— Curtis Bot. Magazine, Tab. 5363, 1st February, 1863. 



3. Plumbago coccinea (Boissier in D. C. Prodr., vol. 12, p. 693.) 



4. Plumbagidium roseum (Spach. Veg. Phan., Vol. 10, p. 339.) 



5. " Radix vesicatoria " (Rumphius Herb. Amboiensis, lib. IX, cap. 

 68, p. 453). 



