•Polycarpon.] xviii. caryophylle^. (Edgeworth & Hook, f.) 245 



1. P. Xioeflin^lcB, Bedth. & Eook.f. Gen. PI. i. 153, in note; glabrous or 

 more or less pubescent, leaves cuneate linear oblong or spathulate, cymes 

 terminal or in tke forks, petals linear truncate tip toothed. P. depressa, 

 JDG. Prodr. iii. 375. P. lanuginosa, Wall. Gat. 1515 b and ? P. Benthamiij 

 1514. Lceflingia indica, Peiz. Obs. 38; Poxb. Fl. Ind. i. 165; Pharnaceum 

 depressum, Linn. Mant. n. 564. Hapalosa Loeflingiae, Wall. Cat. 6962 ; 

 Wight <fc Am. Prodjr. 358. 



Throughout the hatter parts of India, in fields and waste places. — Disteib. Tropical 

 Asia and Africa. 



A weed, erect or diffuse ; branches 6-10 in. Leaves ^-f in., acute or obtuse. 

 Cymes fascicled or panicled. Flowers i in. diam. Sepals subequal, obtusely keeled. 

 Pttah entire or notched. Seeds subcylindric, hilum lateral and snbbasai ; embryo 

 nearly straight. 



19. FOIiVCARPSBA, Lamk. 



Annual or perennial, usually erect berbs. Leaves flat, opposite, or ap- 

 pearing whorled from the presence of axillary fascicles of leaves ; stipules 

 scarious. Mowers numerous, in eflfuse or contracted or capitate cymes. 

 Sepals 5, scarious and often coloured, rarely scarious at the margins only. 

 Petals 6, entire 2-toothed or with the margins erose. Stamens 5, subperi- 

 gynous, free or cohering together and with the petals into a tube. Ovary, 

 1-celled ; style slender 3-fid or 3-dentate ; ovules numerous. Capsule 

 a-valved. Seeds obovoid or compressed. Enibryo curvedj rarely straight. 

 —Disteib. Species about 24, natives of warm climates. 



1. P. corymbosa, Lamh. lU. n. 2798; hoary tomentose or glabrescent, 

 leaves narrow linear or subulate pseudo-verticiUate, stipules lanceolate or 

 subulate, cymes terminal, sepals lanceolate very acute much exceeding the 

 capsules. DC. Prodr. iii.. 374;. Wall. Cat. 1571 ; Wt. Ic. t. 712; W. S A. 

 Prodr. 358. P. spadicea, Lamk.. DC- I.e. 374; W.-&-A. 357; TFall. Cat. 

 1512 b ; Wt. in Hook. Grnnp. Bot. Mag. ii. t. 6. P. densiflora. Wall. Cat. 1513. 

 P. indica, Lamk. Encycl. v. 483. Paronychia subulata, Lamk. Encycl. v. 25. 

 Achyranthes corymbosa, Linn. ; Willd. Celosia corymbosa, WUld. ? Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. i. 681. MoUia spadicea and corymbosa, Willd. t Spreng. Synt. i. 

 795. -Lahaya spadicea awcf corymbosa, Sckdt.'i Syst. v. 405; Burm. Zeyl: 

 %, 65, f. 2.—Rheede HoH. Mai. t. 66. 



, Westekn Peninsdla, and Ceylon, Central and N.W. India, and Sindh, ascending 

 the Westekn Himalaya to 7000 ft. ; Bibma, IFaMicA.— Disteib. Tropical Asia, Africa, 

 Australia, and America. 



An erect or decumbent annual or perennial herb, 6-12 in. high, much dichotomouBly 

 branched. Leaves ^-1 in., acuminate acute or obtuse, much exceeding the stipules. 

 Flowers J in. diam., in dense excessively branched silvery cymes. Sepals scarious, 

 white or coloured, glabrous or pilose, much exceeding the petals and the capsule. — Dr. 

 Wight found it impossible (111. ii. 44) to separate P. spadicea from P. corymbosa, evea. 

 as a well marked variety, and we may add that we have equally failed to discriminate 

 either those species or their synonymy. — The following seems to be a well-marked form, 

 to which the name spadicea might have been applied with propriety. 



Vab. oarea, Wight lU. ii. 44, t. 110; smaller, densely tomentose, excessively 

 bifaaohed, flowers much smaller highly-coloured. 



2. ip. diffusa, Wight & Am. in Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. 91 ; glabrous,' 

 slender, leaves narrow-linear or subulate pseudo-verticillate, sep^s ovate- 

 lanceolate very acute not much exceeding the petals or capsule. Wight ilL 

 ii. 44. 



Westeen Pesikshla ; near Tutiooreen, Wiglit. 



