Rubiacece. 289 



Upper montane zone; common (?). Horton Plains; Maturata; 

 Adam's Peak. Var. 0, Adam's Peak (Fl. B. Ind.). Fl. April, white. 

 AJso in the mountains of India and Malaya. 



2. V. erubescens, Wall. PL Asiat. Rar. ii. 29 (1830). 



Thw. Enum. 136. C. P. 1636. 



Fl. JB. Ind. iii. 7. Wight, Ic. t. 1024 (V. Wightiamtni). Wall. 1. c. 

 t. 134- 



A small slender tree with few virgate branches, bark 

 smooth, yellowish, buds stellate-pubescent ; 1. 2-4 in., oval, 

 acute or rounded at base, acuminate, acute at apex, sharply 

 dentate-serrate in upper half, glabrous above, stellate-hairy 

 on veins beneath ; thin, lat. veins 4 or 5 on each side, very 

 oblique, conspicuous, petiole \-\ in., sparsely stellate-hairy; 

 fl. on short ped., in small, slightly drooping, racemose cymes, 

 terminating short lateral branchlets ; cal. glabrous, segm. 

 lanceolate, cor.-lobes rounded, spreading or recurved ; stam. 

 not exserted ; fruit \ in., oblong-ovoid, much compressed ; 

 glabrous, red. 



Upper montane zone; rare- Sita Eliya, near Hakgala; Elephant 

 Plains (Gardner); Horton Plains (Thwaites). Fl. May; pale pinkish- 

 white or cream-coloured. 



Also in the Himalaya and Nilgiri Mountains. 



A very pretty shrub when in blossom. The leaves have a strong 

 pungent odour when bruised. The wood is said to be very hard and close- 

 grained. 



We have no species of Lonicera in our mountains, though 2 occur in 

 the Nilgiris. 



LXVII.— RUBIACECE. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, rarely climbing, 1. opposite or whorled, 

 simple, entire ^sometimes crenate in Neurocalyx), with inter- 

 petiolar stip. often connate and forming a sheath (absent in 

 Galiece) ; fl. regular, bisexual or rarely unisexual, often 

 dimorphic ; cal.-tube adnate to ov., free limb usually more or 

 less developed, rarely O ; cor. varying from long-tubular to 

 rotate, lobes 4-9, usually 5 (2-lipped in Dichilanthe), valvate 

 or imbricate or twisted in aestivation ; stam. as many as cor.- 

 lobes, inserted in throat or tube of cor. ; anth. distinct (very 

 rarely connate) ; ov. inferior, 1-10- usually 2-cellcd, crowned 

 with epigynous disk, ovules solitary or many (rarely 2) in each 

 cell, erect or horizontal or pendulous, style usually simple, 

 1 11. U 



