Zornia.] LegUlllinOSCB. 35 



S. grandiflora, Pers. (Agati, Desv.) is often seen in native gardens, 

 its large white or red flowers being very conspicuous. It is called 

 Katuru-murunga in S., Akatti in T., and is figured in Bedd. Fl. Sylv. 

 t. 86. The leaves and flowers are eaten. 



10. ZORNIA, Gmel. 



Annual, 1. compound, lflts. 2, dotted; fl. in long lax spikes, 

 each enclosed in a pair of large flat bracts; cal. minute, 

 paleaceous, upper segm. connate; pet. much exserted ; stam. 

 monadelphous, anth. dimorphic; pod jointed, easily separable 

 into flattened, circular, muriculate, indehiscent, i-seeded joints. 

 — Sp. 10; 1 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Z. diphylla, Pers. Syn. PL ii. 318 (1807). 



Herm. Mus. 18. Burm. Thes. 114. Fl. Zeyl. n. 291. Hedysarum 

 difthyllum, L. Sp. PI. 747. Z. an&ustifolia, Sm., Thw. Enum. 84. C. P. 

 3598. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 147. Rheede, Hort. Malab. ix. tt. 82, 83. 



Annual, with many prostrate or ascending, glabrous or 

 puberulous, wiry branches, 6-12 in. long ; 1. small, rachis \-\ in., 

 stip. large, lanceolate, acuminate, produced below into an 

 acuminate appendage, lflts. 2 (a single pair) very shortly stalked, 

 linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute, often unequal-sided, 

 glabrous, rigid, dotted with black glands beneath; fl. small, 

 sessile, distant, each enclosed within a pair of ovate, acute, 

 flat, reticulate-veined, leaf-like, persistent bracts, often ciliate, 

 dotted like the 1., arranged in stiff, erect, very lax axillary 

 spikes; pod either quite enclosed between or slightly exceeding 

 bracts, about \ in., composed of 2-5 compressed indehiscent 

 joints set with numerous short straight spines. 



Var. /3, conjug'ata, Trim. Hedysarum conjugatum, Willd. Sp. PI. iii. 

 1 178. Z. zeylanensts, Pers. Syn. PL ii. 213. Moon Cat. 54. Z. conju- 

 gate, Sm., Thw. Enum. 85. Burm. Thes. t. 50, f. 1. C. P. 3600. 



Lflts. \ in., ovate ; pods larger, twice as long as bracts. 



Var. 7, Walkeri, Baker. Z. Walkeri, Arn. Pug. 12 ; Thw. Enum. 85. 

 C. P. 3599. 



Lflts. \- 1 in. ; pods scarcely longer than bracts, reticulate- 

 veined, without spines. 



Low country, especially dry region ; common. Var. /3, Colombo. 

 Var. y, Colombo ; Jaffna ; Badulla ; Galagama ; Hewahette. Fl. all the 

 year ; yellow. 



Found throughout the Tropics. Var. y is endemic, and has perhaps 

 good f.laims to be kept up as a species. 



Herm. gives ' Manaswsnna ' fMaha-aswenna) as the S. name. 



\Geissasfiis cristala, W. and A., is given for Ceylon in Fl. B. Ind. ii. 

 14 r , but I know of no specimens from here in any Herb.] 



