158 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 



Hab. — In woods near Pycarrah, on the Neilgherry Moun- 

 tains, Peninsula of India, Dr. Wight. 



DESCR.—Epirhizal, herbaceous, leafless, glabrous. Scape thick, 

 obtusely angular, scaley, 3-4 inches long. Scales on the lower part 

 ovate, very obtuse, densely imbricated, about 5 lines long, those on 

 the middle distant. Flowers 8-12, densely racemose, yellow ? Pe- 

 dicels thick, angular, erect, 6-8 lines long, arising from the axile of 

 an ovate- oblong, obtuse scale, about as long as itself, bibracteate 

 below the middle. Bracts oblong- spathulate, acute, veined, denti- 

 culate at the apex, about 6 lines long. Calyx free, persistent, 

 tubular, 5-angled : limb bilabiate, the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower 

 3-lobed, all the lobes short, broad, and very obtuse, the whole 9 lines 

 long. Corolla hypogynous, gamopetalous, infundibuliform, about 15 

 lines long : limb bilabiate, the upper lip erect, 2-lobed, the lower 

 3-lobed, patent, the lobes of both lips rounded and very obtuse. 

 Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on the tube of the corolla : filaments 

 complanate, glabrous, included : anthers cohering, 1- celled, each 

 opening by a single pore at the apex, and produced into a short, 

 conical, obtuse, deflexed spur at the base. Ovary free, ovate, gla- 

 brous, I -celled. Ovules numerous, attached to two parietal placentae. 

 Style filiform, persistent, glabrous. Stigma 2-lobed, the upper lobe 

 abortive, the lower oblong, flattened, obtuse, curved downward. 

 Capsule included in the persistent calyx, globose, about 5 lines in 

 diameter, crowned with the base of the style, 1 -celled, 2-valved, 

 with a loculicidal dehiscence, the valves placentiferous in the middle. 

 Placenta projecting nearly into the middle of the cavity of the cell, 

 with two diverging revolute lobes, which are covered on both sides 

 with seeds. Seeds horizontal, attached by a short funiculus, oblong 

 obtuse : testa loose, brown, reticulated. 



Obs. — The specimens from which the above description 

 is made, I owe to the kindness of my learned and excellent 

 friend Dr. Wight. When I was on the Neilgherries with 

 him in the month of February 1845, we visited the only 

 locality which he knows for it, but, as it only flowers in the 

 wet season, not a vestige of it was then to be seen. Although 



