THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 353 



William, " has long been in cultivation at Kew, and Messrs. Veitch have 

 sent us specimens raised from seeds received from the Neilgherries" The 

 plant is such an exceptionally good illustration of stove-culture that few 

 will fail to recognize the value and extreme beauty of Plumbago rosea 

 as a garden ornament. Under the burning sun of India it can scarcely 

 hope to bear leaves " measuring six inches in length and three in 

 breadth," or panicles " two or more feet long " as depicted in plate 

 5363. The plant requires ample shade and moisture for healthy 

 growth. Sir William's illustration is a vivid example of what the 

 flower and foliage can be where the plant is not called upon to cope 

 with the horrible heat and damaging dryness of the Indian sky. 



It is difficult to understand the remark made by Mr. C. B. Clarke, 

 the writer of the article Plumbagineaz in vol. Ill of Hooker's " Flora 

 of British India" (vide p. 481) with reference to P. rosea. It runs 

 as follows : — " Altogether resembling P. zeylanica and perhaps only 

 a cultivated variety of it." To all appearance the plant I am 

 describing is essentially a distinct species, in which the red colour 

 is markedly prevalent, not only in the flowers and floral envelopes 

 and their appendages, but even in the midrib and margin of the 

 leaves and also in the leaf-appendages. The following conspectus 

 of the two species given by Kurz* will show the differential character- 

 istics of the two species : — 



Spikes glandular, pubescent; corolla white, bract ovate, leafy; 



bractlets subulate Plumbago zeylanica. 



Spikes glabrous or nearly so ; corolla rose-coloured or scarlet ; bract 



ovate, oblong, scarious, brown ; bractlets conform with the bracts... Plumbago rosea. 



. Koxburgh has pointedly remarked that the specific distinguishing 

 mark between P. zeylanica and P. rosea, according to his observation, 

 depends on the racemes and bracts, colour not being a specific mark.-\ 



" The bracts of P. rosea" says Roxburgh, " are three-fold, one-flower- 

 ed, equal, smooth ; the inner or upper two united between the flower and 

 rachis." The bracts of P. zeylanica, on the other hand, " are three-fold, 

 one-flowered; the outer one is ten times larger than the lateral one ; 

 they are covered with the same gluten as the peduncle of the raceme ; 

 sometimes there is a fourth linear bract pressing the calyx." ^ 



* Contribution towards a knowledge of the Burmese Flora, pp. 217, 218, Journal As. Soc, 

 Bengal, No. II, 1877. 



t Roxburgh's Flora Indica, p. 155, Calcutta Edition, 1874, 



2 



