352 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



Next with regard to the habitat of the plant. So far as I know, 

 it is not found in Bombay growing wild. It is essentially a garden 

 variety on this side of India. The Plumbagineoz as a class are said by 

 Mr. Clarke to grow mostly in maritime and saline places, and the 

 genus Plumbago is distributed throughout the warm regions of both 

 the hemispheres. But it is questionable whether Plumbago rosea grows 

 wild extensively, if anywhere at all, in Western India. Kurz thinks 

 it is not wild in Burma ; Thwaites thinks it is not wild in Ceylon ; 

 so says Clarke. Loureiro says that both the species of Plumbago, i.e., 

 the red and the white, grow among the hedges of Indian bamboos, 

 over which they climb as well in Cochin China as in China. Blume 

 observes that the plant known as Plumbago auriculata (probably from 

 its amplexicaul petiole), which is the same as Plumbago zeylanica of 

 Linnaeus, very largely grows in the marshes of Batavia (Bijdragen 

 Flor. Nederland Indie, vol. Ill, p. 735, Buitenzorg). Kurz says 

 that " Plumbago rosea is not unfrequent in the moister mixed forests 

 of Pegu, Yomah, and the Martaban Hills down to Tenasserim ; 

 also Ava." He also adds that the plant is often cultivated and 

 springs up li in toungyas* along the river banks, &c." Rheede 

 has noted that the plant grows in sandy places. In Bentham 

 and Mueller's Flora Australiensis (vol. IV, p. 267), I find the 

 following remark regarding P. rosea : — " Another Indian species, dis- 

 tinguished chiefly by its red flowers and more herbaceous stem, 

 P. rosea, Linn., is said to have established itself near Rockhampton, in 

 Queensland, as an escape from gardens." The question is whether 

 this happens by means of cuttings or by the dissemination or actual 

 planting of the seed. If the plant seeds in Australia at all, it is a 

 remarkable fact — for in Bombay I have never known it to seed. There 

 is this thing to be observed — that it is unquestionable it seeds on the 

 Neilgherry Hills ; for witness what is noted in Curtis' Botanical 

 Magazine, plate 5363, letter-press. It is evident from this plate, depict- 

 ing a very handsome and substantial blossom, that Sir William 

 Hooker considers the plant depicted thereon is a variety, for he calls it 

 " variety coccinea" of Plumbago rosea, which Johnson refers to in his 

 dictionary, as quoted in the foregoing remarks: — " The plant," says Sir 



* Toung-ya (Burmese)— a form of hill-cultivation carried on by burning the jungles— 

 (Balfour). 



