Himalayan journals, vol. ii. p. 48) it is called u Chokli-bi ” by 
the natives of Sikkim, and its young flower-heads, sheathed 
in tender green leaves, form an excellent vegetable, and it is 
to this that the specific name u oleracea ” alludes. 
Desch. Rootstock as in the other species of the genus. 
Stem simple, suberect, attaining sometimes a height of six or 
eight feet, naked in the lower third, leafy from the middle up 
to the base of the inflorescence, flexuose and pubescent in the 
upper part. Leaves eight to fourteen, alternate, oblong, 
acuminate, reaching a length of six or nine inches, mem- 
branous, glabrous on the upper surface, minutely pubescent 
beneath, rounded at the base to a short clasping petiole, with 
seven or nine of the vertical veins more pronounced than the 
rest, the intermediate finer veins numerous and crowded, 
not connected by any distinctly -visible transverse veinlets. 
Flowers in a deltoid terminal panicle, which is sometimes a 
foot broad, and has a very pubescent and very flexuose main 
rachis and branches; pedicels a quarter or half an inch long, 
solitary, densely pubescent, ascending, or the lowest deflexed. 
Bracts minute, linear. Perianth campanulate, white, more or 
less tinged on the outside with red ; segments oblong, obtuse, 
about a quarter of an inch long. Stamens less than half as 
long as the perianth ; anthers minute, oblong ; filaments 
linear. Ovary globose ; style short and stout, tricuspidate 
at the stigmatose tip. Berry rose-purple, with dark spots, 
often with one seed perfected in each of the three cells. — 
J. G. Baker . 
Fig. 1, A complete flower with its pedicel ; 2, a flower, cut open : — both magnified. 
