320 Rubiacece. \Ophiorrhiza. 



15. OFHXORRHXZA,* L. 



Herbs or undershrubs, stip. not conspicuous, fl. small, 

 erect, secund on branches of dichotomous cymes, on ter- 

 minal peduncles, with or without bracts; cal.-limb o, segm. 5 ; 

 cor. tubular, lobes 5, valvate; stam. 5, inserted in tube, anth. 

 linear; disk of 2 very large, prominent erect lobes which 

 become much enlarged in fr. ; ov. 2-celled, placentas arising 

 from base of dissepiment, with many ovules ; fruit a capsule, 

 very strongly compressed, crowned with enlarged disk, which 

 protrudes beyond cal.-segm., coriaceous, much broader than 

 long, loculicidally dehiscent on the top, seeds numerous, 

 angular. — Sp. about 50; 31 in Fl. B. Ind. — The species are 

 obscurely defined. 



Bracts absent or early caducous. 

 Stem erect. 



Herbaceous; cal. segm. short, triangular . 1. O. MUNGOS. 



Shrubby ; cal.-segm. narrow, very acute . 2. O. Harrisiana. 

 Stem prostrate, rooting below . . . .3. O. RADICANS. 

 Bracts persistent with fruit. 

 Bracts glabrous. 



L. glabrous 4. O. pectinata. 



L. hairy 5. O. PALLIDA. 



Bracts ciliate 6. O. glechomifolia. 



1. O. lftung-os,r L. Sp. PL 150 (1753). Dat-k^tiya, Wal- 

 ekaweriya, S. 



Herm. Mus. 37. Fl. Zeyl. n. 402. Moon Cat. 19. Thw. Enum. 139. 

 C. P. 1704. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. jj. Gaertn. Fruct. i. t- 55 (fruit only). 



Herbaceous, never shrubby, stem 1J-2 ft., erect, cylin- 

 drical, slightly branched, glabrous or very finely puberulous; 

 1. rather large, 4-8 in., lanceolate, much tapering at base and 

 decurrent on short petiole, shortly acuminate, subacute, 

 glabrous above, finely puberulous on veins beneath, thin, 

 bright green above, pale beneath, lat. veins very numerous, 

 depressed above, prominent beneath, stip. very short; cymes 

 several, horizontally spreading, arranged sub-umbellately in a 

 flat-topped terminal infl. quite without bracts, fl. on short 



* From the alleged specific action of the roots against the poison of 

 serpents, Linnaeus following Kaempfer in this. 



+ Kaempfer (1712) is the first to connect this plant with the Mungoose 

 by calling it Radix Mungo and quoting Garcia de Orta's account of 

 'Lignum colubrinum 3 for it. I think, however, from the description 

 given by the latter, that the plant meant was rather Rauwolfia serpentina 

 (see under that species). 



