154 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon, 



Herbae Ceylanicce et Indicce, in aliarum Stirpium radicibus 

 parasiticce ; caulibus brevibus, simplicibus vel simpliciter 

 ramosis, aphyllis, squamosis, superne floriferis, floribus 

 magnis, roseis vel luteis, pedicellatis, subracemosis, 



Obs. — When my paper on the Cyrtandrece of Ceylon 

 was published in the 6th Vol. of the " Calcutta Journal of 

 Natural History," I was aware of the existence of the present 

 genus, from imperfect drawings of three species in the Garden 

 Library, but, in the absence of all knowledge of their inter- 

 nal structure, referred them provisionally to the genus Phe- 

 lipaea. Since then I have been fortunate enough to meet 

 with three species in a recent state, and from an examination 

 of their characters have discovered, that they belong to an 

 undescribed genus of Cyrtandrece, and clearly referable to 

 the Section Loxoniece. From the five genera which DeCan- 

 dolle refers to that group, the present is strikingly different 

 in habit, being leafless and parasitical on the roots of other 

 plants ; but in the structure of the flower, fruit, and seed, it 

 comes very near indeed to Rehmannia, Libosch., differing 

 from it chiefly in having 1-celled anthers, no hypogynous 

 disk, and very unequal lobes of the stigma. 



Besides the three species which I have been able to des- 

 cribe from recent specimens, I believe that I can give suf- 

 ficiently good diagnostic characters of two other Ceylon 

 ones from the figures above referred to ; and in my Herba- 

 rium I find excellent specimens of a sixth species from the 

 Neilgherry Mountains in the Peninsula of India, which I 

 owe to the kindness of Dr. Wight. To these I add Pheli- 

 pcea subacaulis of Bentham (Scroph. Ind. p. 55.), which, 

 judging from the description, is evidently a congener. 



It is with much pleasure that I dedicate this beautiful 

 genus to Dr. R. Christison, Professor of Materia Medica in 

 the University of Edinburgh, an honour which has been 

 long due to him for his labours in connection with the pro- 



