218 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
concavis, carnosulis ; ovario glabro. — lu India orientali : v. s. 
in herb. Soc. Linn. (^ , Nepal (Wall. Cat. 4972 b); ? , Molung 
(ibid. 4972 a. b ; ib. 4974 b), Sylhet (ib. 4972 c) ; in herb. 
Hook. $ , Courtallatn (Wight, 2462), Assam (Masters) ; 
Moulmein (Parish) ; ^ , Kumaon, Bagasor (Strach. & Wint.) ; 
$ , Himalaya (Griffiths); (J, Kumaon (Thomson, 1227), Cour- 
tallam (Griffiths); Gurwhal (Faulkner, 87). 
The principal habitat of this species is in the Himalaya range 
extending from Tenasserim to Kumaon : it occurs also at Cour- 
tallam, on the south-western side of the Indian peninsula. It 
is a very distinct species, although regarded by the authors of 
the ‘ Flora Indica ’ as identical with S. rotunda : it differs, how- 
ever, from it not only in its most conspicuous features, but in 
the marked characters of the biglandular petals in the ^ , and 
the frequent absence of sepals in the $ flower : it is distin- 
guishable from S. gracilenta for the same reasons. In regard 
to one of its peculiar features just mentioned, it may be remarked 
that the normal numbers of floral parts in the $ flower of Ste- 
phania are three sepals and three petals, placed alternately in two 
whorls ; but in this species one of the whorls is generally want- 
ing. Roxburgh noticed the same fact, though he regarded the 
three existing parts as being one sepal and two petals ; but, as 
they are in one whorl, and often alike in size, are concave, oval 
in shape, and subfieshy, like the petals in the ^ flower, it may be 
considered that they are petals, and that consequently the sepals 
are wanting. The authors of the ‘ Flora Indica ’ (i. 197) suspect 
that Roxburgh had taken by inadvertence the flowers of their 
Cyclea populifolia but it was not likely that so observant a 
botanist should have mistaken a long racemose inflorescence for 
a twice umbellated panicle. Roxburgh describes the tuberous 
root of this species to be round and often the size of a man’s 
head. Parish’s specimen above quoted is accompanied by a 
drawing and description, showing the tuber to be round, com- 
pressed, 4 inches in diameter, 2 inches deep, from the middle 
of which a stem, | inch in diameter, rises, which at the height of 
4 feet from the ground throws out leaves 7| inches long, on a 
petiole of equal length. In his specimen the branch is ^ inch 
thick, with axils 4-7 inches apart ; the leaves are 4 inches long, 
3| inches broad, on a petiole 3 inches long, inserted 1 inch 
within the basal margin. In the specimen from Bagasor, the 
leaves are 6 inches long, 5^ inches broad, on a rather slender 
petiole 10| inches long, inserted 1| inch within the margin of 
the semiorbicular base. In Wallich’s specimens from Molung 
and Nepal they are 5 inches long, the same in breadth, as are 
also those in Masters’s plant from Assam : both are somewhat 
