-BioPHYTUM.] GERANIACEM, .131 



petiole. Flowers ^ ixi. across, subumbellate; bracts setaceous. Se'pals 

 olDtuse. Petals obcordate, yellow. Fruiting pedicels deflexed. Capsule 

 subcylindric ; cells many-seeded. Seeds transversely ribbed. 

 ■^^Common within the area, especially in cultivated ground. Distrib. : 

 Throughout India and in Ceylon, ascending to 7,000 ft. on the Himalaya ; 

 found also in all tropical and temperate climates. The leaves are used 

 medicinally, and also as a potherb by the poorer classes. 



4. BIOPHYTUM, DC. Fl. Brit. Ind. i, 436. 



Herbs, usually annual, witb simple or branched stems. Leaves 

 abruptly pinnate, fascicled or almost whorled at the top of the stem ; 

 leaflets opposite, oblique ; petiole swollen at the base. Peduncles 

 terminal ; pedicels uuibelled. Flowers small, usually yellow, Sepals 

 5, lanceolate, acuminate. Petals 5. Stamens 10, filaments free, 

 5 outer smaller. Styles 5. Capsule splitting loculicidally into 5 

 spreading valves. Seeds as in Oxalis. — Species about 20, inhabiting 

 Tropical Asia, Africa, and America. 



The flowers are dimorphic as regards the relative length of the stamens 

 and styles. The leaves of some of the species are sensitive, the leaflets 

 .also closing downwards. 



Sepals usually much longer than the capsule . 1. B. sensitivum.^ ^ 

 Sepals small, hardly exceeding the capsule . 2. B. Beinwardtii. 



1. B. sensitivum. DC. Prod, i, 690; Roxh. Fl. Ind. ii, 457; W. & A. Prod, 

 162; Royle Bl. 152 ; D. ^ G. Bomb. Fl. 42 ; F. B. I. i, 436. 

 Stems hispidly pubescent. Leaves l^-5in. ; leaflets 6-15 pairs, 

 variable in size. Peduncles very variable, ^-'')in., hispid, sometimes 

 swollen at the tip ; bracts rigid, setaceous. Flowers shortly pedicelled, 

 yellow ._ Sepals subulate, rigid, glandular and hispid, usually much 

 exceeding the capsule. Petals about twice as long as the sepals. Capsule 

 elliptic, shining. Seeds minute, with obliquely transverse tubercled 

 ridges. 



'Common within the area. Distrib. : Throughout the hotter parts of 

 India and in Ceylon, ascending to 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya ; also in Tro- 

 pical Africa and America. 



2. B. Reinwardtii, Klotzsch in Peters, Beise Mossamo. Bot. 85 ; F. B. 

 X i, 437. 



Zeaflets 10-20 pairs, oblong, tip rounded, equal at the base. Pedicels 

 equalling or exceeding the small flowers. Sepals hardly exceeding the 

 capsule. 



Dehra Dun (Vicary). Distrib. : Hotter parts of India ; also in China 

 and Java. Best distinguished from B. sensitivum by its graceful habit, 

 slender peduncles, smaller flowers, and by the capsulelnot being muck 

 overtopped by the sepals. 



