Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/252

214 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. given by Cooke was found in the grass lands at Alibag on

the banks of a tank. It can hardly deserve rank as a new

species, being apparently a small form of S. lutea. The

corolla is of a deep yellow colour."

The present writer has never seen $. sulphurm. h. J. Sedgwick

in a letter mentions it as a rare plant found during the monsoon in

the Malnad, and says he has specimens.

II. S. densiflora : This is described in all floras as having a 5-ribbed calyx and the writer has found no exceptions to this rule. The 5 primary ribs exist and there are no secondaries.

The corolla is variable in size and shape (fig, 3). The following table gives a comparison of the tube length, anteroposterior and lateral diameters of the flowers of S. lutea and <S. densiflora.

a b, These two plants were growing within a foot of each other. All flowers on one plant of uniform type.

The curve in the tube of S. densiflora is much more marked than in that of S. lutea (fig. 4.) Hence the 10 + 3, &c. in the tub- length measurements of the former 10 being the measurement below and 3 above the bend Van Buuren in his MS. note states that the S. densiflora tube is " strongly bent above the middle ".

As above mentioned, the anthers of S. densiflora are bluish black. The writer was at first suspicious that this colour was merely an early appearance of that blueing to which all Strigas are subject after plucking. Dissection of young flowers on the living plant however, dispelled this suspicion and showed that bluish-black is the natural colour of the anther.

Specimens from different areas sometimes differ. Thus a plant of S. densiflora from Chharodi in Gujarat showed close packing of the flowers due to a [shortening of the internodes, and increased scabridness with more serration of the leaves when compared with S. densiflora collected in Poona.

The writer has found S. lutea and S. densiflora growing together both in grass and on crops. This is also recorded by Barber and bv Van Buuren.