NEILGHERRY PLANTS.
petals, below, covered with short, rigid, glanduliferous hairs petals ovate, obtuse, mucronate style and sta- mens about equal.
Kaitty waterfalls sparingly. On the hills behind the Avalanche Bungalow in moist soil, near springs, very abundant. In full flower in February. This is a large and beautiful species differing from many of its congeners in its ribbed, not pinnately veinous leaves, an important character which Zenker has overlooked in his definition. When seen in perfection this is a very handsome species, with large pink flowers, rarely more than two or three open at once on each branch of the cyme.
SONERILA ELEGANS (R. W.) herbaceous, erect, ramous, hairy leaves petioled, pinninerved, from ovate cordate to cordate, acuminated, serrulate: peduncles terminal, cymosely dichotomous; branches afterwards 57 elongating: flowers numerous, secund: calyx pubes- cent: petals ovate pointed: anthers long beaked: capsule hirsute, conical, 3-sided, crowned with the limb of the calyx: seed hairy.
Sisparah, very abundant all along the road side, in flower and ripe fruit in February. A most conspicuous species, at first a few pale pink flowers open, these are followed successively by others as the branches elongate, until at length each branch is several inches long, covered along the upper edge with a row of capsules and two or three flowers at the extremities: the branches in the mean time spreading horizontally, with a backward tendency slightly approach each other, presenting somewhat the form of the letter V, as shown in the drawing. They often become much longer than here represented, bearing on the same peduncle unopened flowers and ripe capsules.
OSBECKIA.
Calyx-tube ovate, usually covered with stellate bristles or pubescence; limb 4-5 cleft, with appendages between the lobes springing from the outside. Petals 4-5. Stamens 8-10: filaments glabrous: anthers nearly equal and similar to each other, shortly rostrate or very rarely truncated, opening by a single terminal pore; the connectivum with 2 short auricles at the base. Ovary covered with bristles at the apex. Capsule 4-5 cell- ed. Seeds cochleate: hilum orbicular, at the base.-Herbaceous or usually shrubby plants. Flowers terminal. -W. and A. Prod. p. 322. Species of this genus are common to Asia, America, and Africa, but I believe upon the whole predominate in Asia. They are for the most part large flowered handsome plants, and under cultivation would, I should suppose, become very ornamental additions to the flower garden. Several species are natives of the Hills, of these I have selected three of the handsomest to illustrate the genus. O. Leschenaultiana is common about Kotagherry and Nedawuttem, flowering August and September. O. Gardneriana is equally common about Ootacamund; while O. Wightiana is more frequent about Coonoor and Kaitie. OSBECKIA LESCHENAULTIANA (D. C. :) shrub- by: branches 4 angled, beset with stiff hairs: leaves sessile, ovate, somewhat acute, approximate, 5-nerved villous on both sides: flowers sessile, bracteated, about 3 together, capitate: calyx tube globose, covered with palmately ciliated short scales; segments 4, lanceolate (D. C.) petals obcordate, bluntly mucronate: stamens 8; anthers clavate, truncated, curved: ovary crowned with a tuft of bristles. (R. W. MSS.) Frequent about Kotagherry, flowering during the autumnal months. Flowers small, compared with those of most of the other species of the genus, and in pro- portion to the size of the plant, which often attains a height of between two and three feet. They are nearly white, dashed with crimson spots. It associates with O. truncata in its beakless anthers and small flowers, but is in all other respects amply distinct. The flowers in DeCandolle's specimens seem to have been imperfect, as he has not alluded to the petals or stamens. OSBECKIA GARDNERIANA (R. W.) a large erect ramous shrub, all the young parts clothed with long bristly hairs: leaves sessile, ovate, 3-nerved; usually with two short slender lateral ones near the base, pu- bescently hairy on both sides: flowers terminal capi- tate: calyx tube short, campanulate, closely covered with ligulate and, towards the apex, clavate adpressed scales, furnished with numerous long dark red or rusty coloured bristles; limb 5-cleft, divisions linear, lanceo- late, obtuse, more than twice the length of the appen- dages, both covered with bristles: petals 5, orbicular: stamens 10, anthers recurved, corrugated on the inner edge, shortly beaked. This, which is the largest and most conspicuous species found on the Hills, is very abundant in the woods about Ootacamund, extending westwards as far as Sisparah. In favourable situations it becomes a large bush 8 or 10 feet high, though generally about 4 or 5; flowering in profusion during February and March, when it is indeed a striking object. At first sight it seems very nearly allied to O. Wightiana, but a closer inspection shows that they are quite distinct species. The kind of hair with which the leaves of the two species are clothed, is very different; in this they are scattered, long and soft, like rough pubescence, hence I have made use of that term to distinguish them; while in the other they are very dense, stiff and closely adpressed, giving in some lights an almost metalic lustre to their surface-here the leaves are 3-nerved, there 5 to 7-here the scales of the calyx are partly ligulate, there they are capitate; here the bristles with which the calyx is clothed are of a deep rusty brown and very long, while there they are nearly white and com- paratively short. And lastly, the Howers are much smaller in this than the other. I have dedicated this noble species to Mr. George Gardner, the Superinten- dent of the Royal Botanic Garden of Ceylon, as a last- ing memorial of the many agreeable hours spent with him in exploring the vegetable treasures of these Hills,
