134 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Arabic name : — Molochia or melochia, muluhhije. 
English name Jute (from the Sanskrit f juta ' or f jata ; )* ; Jew's 
JVlaliOW. 
Description : — Annual, 3 — 4 feet high, much branched ; stems 
glabrous. Leaves — 4 by 1| — 2 inches, elliptic-lanceolate, acute or 
acuminate, glabrous, serrate, the lower serratures on each side prolonged 
into a filiform appendage over \ inch long, rounded at the base, 3 — 5- 
nerved ; petioles J — 1 inch long, slightly hairy, especially towards the apex ; 
stipules subulate, \ — | inch long. 
Flowers pale yellow, buds obovoid, angled, cuspidate ; bracts 
lanceolate ; peduncle shorter than the petiole ; pedicels 1 — 3, very short. 
Sepals J inch long, oblong, apiculate. Petals -h inch long, oblong- 
spathulate. Style short ; stigma microscopically papillose. 
Capsules — 2J inches long, linear cylindric, erect, 10-ribbed, 
beaked, glabrous ; cells and valves generally four, but five not uncommon ; 
valves with transverse partitions between the seeds. Seeds trigonous, 
black. 
Locality: — Gravelly slope of the Shum Shum Range (Ellenbeck) ; 
without locality (Birdw.) . 
Distrihition :• — It is stated in Hooker's Flora of British India , that 
this species is indigenous in many parts of India, and distributed by 
cultivation to all tropical countries. "Watt, however, thinks, that its 
claim to being strictly speaking indigenous in India rests on doubtful 
evidence. 
Note : — It will be well to remember a remark made by Watt on the 
great variability of the fruit of the cultivated species of Corchorus : 
“ It seems, in fact, probable that the peculiarities of the seed are much 
more constant than the shape of the fruit or the number of its carpels 
and \alves. It is thus highly likely that this \_C. cajpsularis Linn.] as 
also the next form [ G . olitorius Linn.] are but cultivated conditions un- 
worthy of the specific positions usually assigned to them. They are at all 
events each representative of groups of cultivated races that vary in colour 
of stem, shape of leaf, degree of hairiness, size of flower, shape and 
number of valves of fruit, etc., etc., until a'panorama of specimens might 
be assorted that would not only break down the separation of cajosularis 
from olitorius but might even endanger the positions of C. trilocularis 
and C. acutangulus . This much is certain, namely, that if specimens be 
* According to Skeat, Dutfc and others two other names are mentioned by Sanskrit 
authors, viz., ‘patta* and ‘ kalasaka/ but the plant is by no means very clearly nor fully 
indicated in the classic literature of India. In the Indian vernaculars it is the pat, jhut, 
jhoto, jbuto, etc. 
