Oldenlandia.] RubiacecZ. 3 1 5 



slender, shorter than 1. ; cal.-segm. small, narrowly triangular, 

 mucronate; capsule nearly globose, often slightly pyriform, 

 truncate, somewhat didymous, glabrous. 



Var. /3, racemosa, Thw. Enum. 419. C. P. 3837, 2638. 



Fl. 3-6 together, racemose or umbellate, peduncle shorter. 



Low country; a common weed. Var. (3, Colombo. Fl. July-Sept.; 

 white. 



Throughout the Tropics. Linnaeus founded the species on the 

 American plant. Some species seem intermediate in characters between 

 this and O. diffusa (<?. g. C. P. 2638). 



Very much used as a medicine in remittent fevers. 



2. O. diffusa, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 11 (1814). 



Hedyotis Burmanniana, var. brachypoda, Thw. Enum. 419. C. P. 

 3838. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 65. 



Stems numerous, prostrate, often rooting at nodes, slender, 

 glabrous; 1. f-i^ in., linear or linear-lanceolate, acute, stip. 

 short, slightly pectinate ; fl. solitary (rarely 2 together), on 

 very short ped. ; cal.-segm. rather long, narrow, cuspidate, 

 finely ciliate, very distant in fruit ; capsule larger than in 

 corymbosa, broader than long, very truncate and flat on top. 



A weed in waste ground in low country ; less common than 0. corym- 

 bosa. Fl. June-September; white. 

 Tropical Asia generally. 



3. O. herbacea, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ed. Wall. i. 445 (1820). 



Fl. Zeyl. n. 65. Hedyotis herbacea, L. Sp. PI. 102. Moon Cat. 10. 

 H. Hey?iii, Br., Thw. Enum. 144. C. P. 1673. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 65 (O. Heynii). Rheede, Hort. Mai. x. tt. 23 and 35. 



An erect, rigid, much-branched annual herb with dicho- 

 tomous, slender, quadrangular, glabrous, divaricate branches 

 with long internodes ; 1. \-i\ in., linear (the lower rather 

 broader), sessile, acute, glabrous, margin often recurved, stip. 

 very short, inconspicuous ; fl. solitary, on stiff, divaricate, 

 axillary ped., longer or shorter than 1.; cal.-teeth lanceolate, 

 acute, short ; capsule ovate-ovoid, with the top rounded and 

 protruded beyond the erect cal.-segm. 



Low country ; very common, and up to 4000 ft., in dry sandy places. 

 All the year ; white. 



Also in Peninsular India, Malay Islands, and Trop. Africa. 



Hermann's specimens are the whole foundation for Linnaius's H. 

 herbacea, and they are clearly this species, which is generally called 

 0. //cytiii, though Roxburgh had retained Linnaeus's specific name under 

 Oldenlandia. This does not vary in Ceylon, and is an easily distinguished 

 BJM '.ies. 



O. crys/allina, Roxb., an Indian species, has been occasionally found 

 as a weed in gardens, doubtless introduced with other plants in soil. 



