THE INDIAN SPECIES OF ERIOCAULON. 261
aequalia, glandulis magnis instructa, antherae nigrae. Flos ° sepala 2, angusta ; pefcala 3, late-oblaneeolata, magnis glandulis instructa. German tricoccum, Semina oblonga-eliptica, rubro-fusca.
Bombay, Mahabaleshwar on bill sides, on rocks, etc. Plate 16.
Remarkable for tbe very dense covering of white hairs on the floral bracts making tbe heads snow-white ; and for the broad female petals and their large glands.
In general appearance and in the broad female petals the plants are often very like plants of E. horslcy-kundae Fyson, Var megaloce- phala, No. 47, collected by Talbot and Meebold from the Bababoodans to the Nilgiris. The female petals are like also those of E. Geoffreyi, E. Gollettii, etc. where however the receptacle is glabrous. I cannot find anything in Ruhland's monograph to correspond with this and therefore suggest a new species.
III. HIRSUTAE.
Stem disciform. Leaves scapes and especially the involucral bracts hairy, rarely glabrous. Receptacle hairy. Flowers both male and female normal, (p. 148) but petals in some unequal.
About 5 species (10 in Ruhland I.e.) in India and Burma with extensions to China and Malaya possibly two in Africa.
TABLE SHOWING RELATIONSHIP AND DISTRIBUTION.
China.
Var macrophyllum...S. Burma and Straits — Brownianum ...4£ Settlements.
Type Khasia and N. Burma.
Var nilagirense S. India and Ceylon.
— Rhodae Wynaad and S. W. My- sore.
robusto-brownianum ^...Western Mysore.
— gracile and Var Kurzii Burma.
— Wightianum Burma.
~" — — Var Helferi Andamans.
— lanceolatum S. India on West Coast.
Key to the Hirsutae.
- Bracts of the involucre black, or
brownish at the base. Heads 1/3-1 inch diam.
Floral bracts acuminate, hairy, giving the head an echinate appearance (W. Ghats). 23 robusto-brownianum.
Floral bracts dirty white, nearly glab- rous. (W. Ghats, of Mysore and Wynaad). 25 E. Rhodae.
