Leaves linear-awled, pointed, oppofite, petioled with one strong nerve; stipules, very soft, minute. Stem smooth, round, twining; the whole plant abounding with milk. 32. LA'NGALI`: SYN. Saradi, Toyapippali, Saculádanì. VULG. Cánchrà, Ifholángolyá. RHEEDE: Chéru-vallél? LINN. NAMA of Silán. CAL. Perianth one-leaved, five-parted, villous; divifions, lanced, point ed, long, permanent. COR. One-petaled, nearly wheeled. Tube very fhort. Border fiveparted. 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-seeded. SEEDS very minute. Stem herbaceous, branchy, smooth, pale, creeping. Leaves alternate, short-petioled, most entire, lance-oblong, smooth, acutish. Peduncles mostly 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 reason, however, to doubt whether it be the Làngali of the Amaracòfh, 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 LINNÆUS, with leaves inverse-egged, Smooth, and peduncles shorter: its fibrous, creeping roots are purplish, buoys, white, pointed, folitary; and at the top of the germ fits a nectary, compofed of five shaggy bodies arched like horse shoes, with external honey-bearing cavities. 33. UMA': SYN. Atasi, Chumá. VULG. Tisi, Mafaná. LINN. Moft 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 base. 34. MU'RVA': SYN. Dévi, Madhurafa, Móratá, Téjanì, Survá, Madhúlicá, Madhus'rénì, Gócarni, Piluparnì; VULG. Muragà, Muraharà, Murgábi. LINN. Hyacinthoid, ALETRIS. CAL. None. COR. One-petaled, funnel-form, fix-angled. Tube thort, bellied with germ. Border fix-parted. Divifions lanced; three quite reflected in a circle; three alternate, deflected, pointed. the STAM. Filaments fix, awled, as long as the corol, diverging, inferted in the base of the divifions. Anthers oblong, incumbent. 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 ftamens. Stigma clubbed. PERICARP and SEEDS not yet infpected. Root fibrous, tawny, obfcurely jointed, ftolon-bearing. Scape long, columnar, fheathed with leaves, imbricated from the root; a few sheaths above, ftraggling. Leaves fleshy, channelled, swordform, 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 honey 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 Dhanuhs'rénì among the synonyma ; 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 funrife. 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 facrificial zone of the military class. 35. TARUNI: SYN. Sabá, Cumári. VULG. LINN. Two-ranked ALOE, A Perfoliata, P? Ghrita-cumári. 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 sides with white spots. VAN RHEEDE exhibits the true ALOE by the name of Cumárì; but the pecimen, 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 seven to ten), awled, very short, hairy. Anthers oblong, erect. PIST. Germ above, roundish, villous. Style cylindrick. Stigma obtufe. PER. Drupe oval, pointed; bright orange-fcarlet. 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 VOL. II. M imagination imagination of a BURMAN to difcover in them a resemblance to the face of a man, or of an ape, the genus will, I hope, be called BACULA, by which name it is frequently celebrated in the Puránas, and even placed among the flowers of the Hindu paradife. Leaves alternate, petioled, egg-oblong pointed, smooth. The tree is very ornamental in parks and pleasure-grounds. 37. As'o'CA: SYN. Vanjula. CAL. Perianth two-leaved, clofely embracing the tube. COR. One-petaled. Tube long; cylindrick, fubincurved; mouth en- PIST. Germ, above, oblong, flat. Style fhort, downy. Stigma bent, PER. Legume long, compreffed at first, then protuberant with the fwelling feeds; incurved, ftrongly veined and margined, sharppointed. SEEDS from two to eight, folid, large, many-shaped, fome oblongroundish, some rhomboidal, some rather kidney-shaped, mostly thick, fome flat. Leaves egg-oblong-lanced, oppofite, moftly five-paired, nerved; long from four or five to twelve or thirteen inches. The number of stamens varies confiderably in the fame plant: they are from fix or seven to eight or nine; but the regular number feems eight, one in the inteftices of the corol, and one before the centre of each divifion. Most of the flowers, indeed, have one abortive stamen, and some only mark its place, but many are perfect; and VAN RHEEDE fpeaks of eight as the conftant number: in fact no part of the plant is conftant. |