290 CLiT. DiosooEEACB^. (J. D. Hooker.) \_Dioscorea. 



Throughout tropical India, from Kumaon in the N.W. Himalaya eastward 

 to Btjema, and southward to Ceylon and Malacca. Distbie. Malay Hills, Afr. 

 trop. 



Tubers oblong (5-6 ft., Ic. Thwaites). Stem slender, pricltly at the base, rarely 

 above, often bulbiferous. Leaves as in D. tomentosa, but never softly tomentose, 

 obovate, acuminate or cuspidate. Male panicles and flowers glabrous hispidly 

 pubescent or villous, spikes lax or dense-fld. ; flowers sessile or pedieelled, ■jVt's ™- 

 diam. fragrant; filaments and staminodes very short. Capsule f-l in., rounded 

 at both ends or base cordate and tip apioulate, glabrous or pubescent. Seeds J-J in., 

 wing broader than the nucleus. — I cannot separate the glabrous tomentose and 

 villous-flowered plants, or the sessile- from the pedicelled-flowered. A fruiting 

 Bombay specimen from Ritchie has almost woolly capsules cordate at the base, 

 and with a strong short beak at the retuse apex. 



4. D. kumaonensis, KuntJi Enum. v. 395 ; leaves 3-5-foUolate 

 nearly glabrous or sparsely hairy beneath, bracts long-acuminate longer 

 than the flowers. D. penta.phylla, Wall. Gat. 5098 B. D. triphylla, Wall. 

 Gat. 5702 B. F. Yitis, Wall. Gat. 9032. 



Tempeeate Himalaya, alt. i-6000 ft. from Kashmir to Sikkim. The Khasia 

 and MuNNEPOKE Hills, alt. 5-6000 ft. 



Very near D. pentaphylla, but a plant of temperate regions, and more slender, 

 with pisiform bulbils, more membranous narrower leaflets with long setaceous 

 points, larger longer more pointed bracts, larger flowers x5~m) ^''- ^'a™-! longer 

 staminodes and pistillode ; but there are Garwhal specimens from Edgeworth with 

 bracts as short and flowers as small as in pentaphylla. Qapsule % in. oblong, 

 rounded at both ends. — A state occurs in both the Himalaya and Khasia with a 

 much-branched panicle bearing imperfect long-pedicelled flowers with very narrow 

 quite glabrous sepals and petals, abortive anthers, and sometimes a large imperfect 

 stigma; the bracts in this are at the base of the pedicel which is an imperfect 

 ovary. 



5. D. Jacquemontii, £oo^. /. ; leaves 3-5-folioIate, leaflets finely 

 acuminate glabrous, flowers much larger than in D. pentaphylla glabrous 

 and short bracts both streaked with brown. 



The CoNCAN, between Poena and Carli, Jacquemont ; Belganm, Ritchie. 

 Closely allied to D. pentaphylla, but besides the above differences, the stamens, 

 staminodes and pistillodes are all much longer. 



B. Leaves simple. 



Seci. III. Sepals broadly oblong or orbicular. Stamens 3, antheriferous, 

 anther-cells remote on the arms of a forked connective. 



6. D. Collettii, Sook. /.— Diosc. sp. indesci-ipt., Collett & Hemsl. 

 ill Journ. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 137. 



Burma ; Shan Hills, alt. 4000 ft., Collett. 



Quite glabrous. Branches slender, terete, unarmed. Leaves, largest 4-5 by 

 3-3j in., broadly ovate -cordate, acuminate, 7-9-nerved from the deeply 2-lobed 

 base, membranous, reticulate, basal lobes rounded; petiole slender. Male spikes 

 axillary, solitary, longer than the leaves, very slender ; flowers Jj in. diam., in distant 

 clusters 5 bracts very broad, membranous j sepals orbicular-ovate and broadly elliptic 

 petals flat, with rounded tips ; stamens inserted on the base of the sepals, distant 

 from the minute 3-toothed starainode; filaments very short; anther-cells minute, 

 globose. — Dries black. The only Asiatic species with forked filaments and separated 

 anther-cells. 



Sect. IV. Sepals broadly oblong or orbicular. Stamens 6, antheri- 



