Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/251

VARIATION IN BOMBAY STRIGAS. one calyx. It is to be noted that additional ribs are never obtained by the increase of the number of main ribs but always by the intercalation of additional secondary ones. If there is only one additional secondary rib that has been always found in an anterior position (fig. 1).

The case of the 15-ribbed plant is shown in fig. 2. 10-ribbed cases were found in many plants collected from Karjat, a station on the line between Bombay and Poona, but few were found among those collected actually at Poona.

B. The colour of the corolla of S. lutea is given as follows :
 * Hooker: "Scarlet, purple, yellow or white."
 * Cook: "Usually bright yellow, occasionally red or white."
 * Trimen: "Bright chrome yellow,"
 * Mueschler : "Scarlet, red, yellow or white."

Van Buuren, in an MS. note dated Oct. 21, 1913 says "Corolla in early stages white, becomes a light chrome yellow when older or sometimes chrome yellow."

L. J. Sedgwick, writing to me on 3-9-19 states "The fact that S. lutea could be any other colour than yellow had escaped my notice. . . . It is always yellow in the Dharwar Malnad and the Nilgiris." Writing to me later on 15-11-19 the same botanist says ":As regards S. lutea, Bell swears to having seen the red-flowered form once at Ekambi in Kanara."

The corolla colours observed by the present writer are two (1) a sulphur yellow in plants found in grassland at various places, this colour of corolla has never, up to date, been observed by the writer in plants parasitic on crops; (2) a faintly creamy white, slightly deeper in colour at the throat, in plants parasitic on jowar, bajri, and grasses.

The writer has never seen a red or a purple. There is some probability that Hooker's purple is a description of the bluish tinge which the corolla, and in fact, the whole plant, take on very soon after being plucked.

C. The anthers are not described by any of the botanists whose floras have been mentioned. The anthers in S. lutea are brownish-yellow in both white and yellow varieties. The colour of the anthers is an aid to distinguishing the white variety from S. densiflora. In S. densiflora the anthers are bluish-black.

With reference to the yellow variety the writer would quote the following footnote from Van Buuren :

"Since the publication of this, a specimen which is very similar to Striga sulphured according to the description