Nothing can be more beautiful than the appearance of this plant in flower during the rains on the banks of rivers, where it is commonly interwoven with a lovely twining ASCLEPIAS, of which the following description is, I hope, very exact:

31. DUGDHICA': or Milkplant; SYN. Cfbíráví, Dugdhicá.

VULG. Kyirui, Dúdhi, Dúdh-latá.

LINN. Efculent Periploca.

CAL. One-leaved, five-parted; divifions awled, acute, coloured, expanding.

COR. One-petaled, falver-form, ftarlike; divifions five, egged, pointed, fringed.

Nectary double, on a five-cleft base, gibbous between the clefts, protruded, and pointed above, furrounded with a bright green villous rim: exterior five-parted; divifions egged, converging, attenuated into daggers; each concave externally, gibbous below the cavity, which is two-parted and wrinkled within. Interior, a five-parted corpufcle, lopped above, five-angled, furrounding the fructification.

STAM. Filaments scarce any. Anthers five, roundish, very minute, set round the fummit of the lopped corpufcle.

PIST. Germs two, egged, pointed, erect, internally flat. Styles none, unless you fo call the points of the germs. Stigma, none but the interior nectary, unless you confider that as a common ftigma. PER. Follicles two, oblong; in fome, pointed; in others, obtufe; inflated, one-valved; each containing a one-winged receptacle. SEEDS numerous, roundish, compreffed, crowned with pappus.

To each pair of leaves a peduncle moftly two-flowered, often with three, fometimes with five, flowers. Calyx reddish. Corol white, elegantly marked with purple veins; fringe, white, thick; anthers black.

Leaves

Leaves linear-awled, pointed, oppofite, petioled with one strong nerve; ftipules, very foft, minute. Stem fmooth, round, twining; the whole plant abounding with milk.

CAL. Perianth one-leaved, five-parted, villous; divifions, lanced, point

ed, long, permanent.

COR. One-petaled, nearly wheeled. parted. Divifions egged.

STAM. Filaments five, awled, expanding; from the mouth of the tube, adhering to the divifions of the border by rhomboidal concave bafes convergent above. Anthers large, arrowed.

PIST.

Germ above, egg-oblong, two-cleft. Styles two, azure, funnelform, diverging almost horizontally. Stigmas lopped, open. PER. Capfule many-feeded.

SEEDS very minute.

Stem herbaceous, branchy, fmooth, pale, creeping. Leaves alternate, short-petioled, most entire, lance-oblong, smooth, acutifh. Peduncles moftly axillary, fometimes terminal, villous, often many-flowered, rarely fubumbelled, three-rayed, with involucres general and partial. Corols bright-blue, or violet; Stamens white. The plant is aquatick; and by no means peculiar to Silàn: I have great reafon, however, to doubt whether it be the Làngali of the Amaracòf, which is certainly the Canchrà of Bengal; for though it was first brought to me by that name, yet my gardener infifts, that Canchrà is a very different plant, which, on examination, appears to be the Afcending JUSSIEUA of LINNEUS, with leaves inverfe-egged, Smooth, and peduncles fhorter :

its fibrous, creeping roots are purplish, buoys, white, pointed, folitary; and at the top of the germ fits a nectary, compofed of five fhaggy bodies arched like horse shoes, with external honey-bearing cavities.

33. UMA':

SYN. Atasi, Cfbumá.
VULG. Tisì, Masaná.

LINN. Most common LINUM.

CAL. Perianth five-leaved. Leaflets oblong, acute, imbricated, keeled, fringed, minutely having fomewhat reflected at the points.

COR. Small, blue; petals, notched, ftriated, wavy, reflex, imbricated. STAM. Anthers light-blue, converging, no rudiments of filaments,

PIST. Germ large. Style pale-blue. Stigma fimple.

PER. Capfule pointed. Furrowed.

Root fimple.

Stem. Herbaceous, low, erect, furrowed, knotty? naked at the base. Leaves linear, threenerved, alternate croffwife, feffile, fmooth, obtuse, reflected, ftipuled, glanded?

Stipules linear. Q. a minute gland at the bafe.

34. MU'RVA':

SYN. Devi, Madhurafa, Móratá, Téjanì, Survá, Madhúlicá, Madhus'rénì, Gócarni, Piluparni;

VULG. Muragà, Muraharà, Murgábi.

LINN. Hyacinthoïd, ALETRIS.

CAL. None.

COR. One-petaled, funnel-form, fix-angled. Tube thort, bellied with the germ. Border fix-parted. Divifions lanced; three quite reflected in a circle; three alternate, deflected, pointed.

STAM. Filaments fix, awled, as long as the corol, diverging, inserted

in the base of the divifions. Anthers oblong, incumbent.

PIST.

PIST.

Germ inverfe-egged, obfcurely three-fided, with two or three honey-bearing pores on the flattish top. Style awled, one-furrowed as long as the stamens. Stigma clubbed.

PERICARP and SEEDS not yet inspected.

Scape long,

Root fibrous, tawny, obfcurely jointed, ftolon-bearing. columnar, fheathed with leaves, imbricated from the root; a few fheaths above, ftraggling. Leaves fleshy, channelled, fwordform, keeled, terminated with awls, the interior ones longer; mostly arched; variegated with transverse undulating bands of a dark green hue approaching to black. Raceme erect, very long; Flowers, from three to feven in each fafcicle, on very fhort petiols. Bracts linear, minute. Corols, pale pea-green, with a delicate fragrance, resembling that of the Peruvian HELIOTROPE; fome of the Sanfcrit names allude to the boney of these delicious flowers; but the nectareous pores at the top of the germ are not very distinct: in one copy of the Amaracósha we read Dhanubs'rénì among the fynonyma; and if that word, which means a feries of bows, be correct, it must allude either to the arched leaves or to the reflected divifions of the corol. This ALETRIS appears to be a night-flower; the raceme being covered, every evening, with fresh bloffoms, which fall before funrise.

From the leaves of this plant, the ancient Hindus extricated a very tough elastick thread, called Maurvì, of which they made bowstrings, and which for that reason, was ordained by MENU to form the sacrificial zone of the military class.

35. TARUNI:

SYN. Sahá, Cumári.

VULG.

Ghrita-cumári.

LINN. Two-ranked ALOE, A Perfoliata, P?

Flowers

Flowers racemed, pendulous, fubcylindrick, rather incurved. Bracts, one to each peduncle, awled, concave, deciduous, pale, with three dark stripes. Corol fix-parted; three external divifions, orange-scarlet; internal, yellow, keeled, more fleshy, and more highly coloured in the middle. Filaments with a double curvature. Germ fix-furrowed. Stigma fimple. Leaves awled, two-ranked; the lowest, expanding; fea-green, very fleshy; externally quite convex, edged with soft thorns; variegated on both fides with white spots. VAN RHEEDE exhibits the true ALOE by the name of Cumárì; but the fpecimen, brought me by a native gardener, seemed a variety of the two-ranked, though melting into the fpecies, which immediately precedes it in LINNÆUS.

36. BACULA: SYN. Césára.

VULG. Mulfari or Múlafrí.

LINN. MIMUSOPS Elengi.

CAL. Perianth eight-leaved; leaflets egged, acute, permanent; four interior, fimple; four exterior, leathery.

COR. Petals fixteen, lanced, expanding; as long as the calyx. Nectary eight-leaved; leaflets lanced, converging round the stamen and pistil.

STAM. Filaments eight (or from feven to ten), awled, very short, hairy. Anthers oblong, erect.

PIST. Germ above, roundish, villous. Style cylindrick. Stigma obtufe.

PER. Drupe oval, pointed; bright orange-scarlet.

NUT. Oval, wrinkled, flattish and smooth at one edge, broad and two-furrowed at the other.

Flowers agreeably fragrant in the open air, but with too strong a perfume to give pleasure in an apartment: fince it must require the imagination

VOL. II.

M