466 PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. teed. 



Sung. TTTT^v*, Sumoodvuka. 



Beng. Dhol-SIiMmoodra. 



Is common throughout Bengal. Flowering time the rainy season. 



Moot tuberous, perennial, red. — Stem erect, annual, flexuose, joint- 

 ed. — Leaves simple, alternate, petioled, broad-cordate, irregularly 

 serrate, or tooth-lobed ; posterior lobes large and overlapping each 

 other; smooth on both sides, except that on the underside the numer- 

 ous veins are very protuberant, of which the larger are always oppo- 

 site; from one to two feet long, and nearly as broad. — Petioles taper- 

 ing from the base, furrowed below, channelled above, as far as the 

 stipule-like membrane reaches. — Cymes terminal, large ; first division 

 three- parted, or three distinct cymes, superior divisions less regular. 

 ■ — 1 lowers very numeious, small, white. — Bractes small, falling. — 

 Calyx rive-toothed, permanent. — Corol one-petalled. Tube length 

 of the calyx. Border five-parted; divisions lanceolate, expanding 

 with an incurved apex, and there bagged. Nectary; in this species 

 the apices of the divisions are entire. — Filaments five, length of the 

 nectary and inserted on the bottom of its live fissures. Anthers in- 

 verted within the mouth of the nectary, with their sides united. — 

 Germ superior, six-celled, with one ovulum in each, attached to the 

 base of the axis. Style cylindric. Stigma simple, perforated, lodged 

 about the middle of the inverted anthers. — Berry much depressed, 

 toiose, size of a small cherry, obscurely six- or more-lobed, smooth, 

 lulack, and succulent when ripe, six- or more-celled- — Seeds solitary. 

 Integuments two; the exterior one somewhat unciform, pretty thick, 

 and brown ; the inner one very thin, and lighter coloured, adhering to 



the perisperm Perisperm conform to the seed, deeply intersected 



with brown, clammy fissures — Embr yo small, scarcely half the length 

 of the perisperm, subulate. Cotyledons subulate. Radicle inferior, 

 pointing to the umbilicus. 



Obs. The root promises to yield a colour fit for dying; its taste 

 is. astrigent, and it is mucilaginous. 



