N. 0. RANCNOULACEjE. 
13 
Roots: — biennial, paired, tuberous; daughter-tuber ovoid- 
oblong to ellipsoid, 2 5-4 cm, long, about 1-1'5 cm. thick, with 
a few filiform root-fibres, dark-brown externally, fracture scarcely 
farinaceous, yellowish, taste rather indifferent, followed by a 
strong tingling sensation, cambium continuous, forming in 
cross-section a slightly sinuous ring; mother-tuber much shrunk 
and wrinkled, with numerous root-fibres, outer sieve-strands, sur- 
rounded by a mantle of sclerencbymatic cells Innovation bud 
conic, 4-5 mm. long ; scales ovate, prominently finely nerved, 
persistent. Stem erect, with or without a slender bypogaeous 
base (tip to 3 cm. long) which emits numerous fine roots near 
the upper end, simp'le erect, 40-90 cm. high, rather slender, 
covered with short spreading yellow hairs in the upper part, 
glabrous below, hollow. Leaves scattered, distant, excepting 
the lowest 2‘ or 3 which are usually delayed at the time of the 
flowering, up to 7, glabrous, or the uppermost very sparingly 
hairy ; petioles slender, the lower up to 25 cm. long and much 
dilated at the base, uppermost very short ; blade orbicular- 
cordate to reniform in outline with a rather wide sinus (up to 8 
cm. deep) up to 1 1 cm. high from the sinus to the tip, up to 20 cm. 
across, 5-pedati-p irtite to the very base or almost so in the 
inner, and to in the outer incisions, divisions deltoid from 
a cuneate base on the outermost trapezoid, intermediate division 
3-lobed to the middle, middle lobe elongate, pinnate-laciniate 
to inciso-dentate, ultimate segments or teeth acute or very acute, 
inner lateral divisions similar, but less. symmetric, outermost 
2-lobed or 2-partite, all laciniae, more or less linear-lanceolate and 
divaricate, the outermost overlapping and thus closing the sinus ; 
upperlnost blades, sessile or subsespile, much smaller or dis- 
sected. Inflorescence a loose raceme 10-25 cm. long, often 
with slender, erect, few-flowered additional branches from the 
leafy base ; rhachis slender, densely yellow-pubescent to sub- 
tomentose ; floral leaves like the preceding leaves, but much 
reduced, passing upwards into trifid or entire and linear-lanceo- 
late bracts ; bracteoles at or below the middle, resembling reduced 
biacts, very often suppressed ; pedicels slender, erect, the lowest 
at length up to 7 cm. long. Sepals blue* hairy ; uppermost 
helmet-shaped, helmet semi-orbicular in profile, shortly beaked 
