Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/641

Rh I have seen only the one specimen quoted above. The sepals are large, Ruhland says of the species that they are flat and concave only at the tips, but those of the specimen seen by me are quite boat-shaped for the whole length.

VARIATION IN FEMALE SEPALS.

Taken from a sheet of E. truncatum Ham. marked 47. D. Barclay, C. India, 1870.

9. E. truncatum Ham.; F.B.I, vi 578, No. 24; Ruhl. No. 178 Leaves usually 1-3 in. flat, narrowed from the base. Scapes several. Heads hemispheric. Involucre horizontal, scarious, not or hardly projecting beyond the head. Receptacle glabrous. Floral bracts very obtuse, nearly glabrous. Female sepals narrow, 2 boat-shaped, toothed at the apex, and third sepal if present acute; or 2 only. Petals 3 narrow.

Bengal, Assam, North Burma and southwards to Malacca; S. India and Ceylon.

Var. a vera, Tipperah, Mts. of Monghir.

This I take to be the true species, for Mart, in Wall. As. Rar. iii, p. 29 describes the flower as having a third sepal. But Koerniche in Linnaea xxvii, p. 633, Hooker in F.B.I. l.c. and Ruhl. l.c. both give the commoner 2-sepalled flower of the next variety.

Var b di-sepala. Female sepals 2, otherwise as in the type. The wider distribution given for the species.

For a similar variation in the female sepals see E. Thwaitesii, Koern.

Two sheets in Herb. Calc. unfortunately without precise locality but one marked C. India, are similar in many respects, but the floral bracts are cuneate acute, not rounded. The female sepals vary in the same head, 3 equally boatshaped or one linear, or two only. Except for the glabrous receptacles these plants might be E. Dianae. (No. 20).

10. E. Trimeni Hook, f. (Bambulla Rk. 1881 in Herb. Ceylon!) Fl. Ceylon, 1900, v p. 8; Ruhl. p. 117, "incognita". Scapes 1/2-2 in. leaves 1/3-1/4 in. narrow to linear. Heads 1/10-1/8 in. Involucral bracts hyaline, as long or slightly longer than the floral, sub-erect. Floral bracts cunately oblong or obovate. Receptacle glabrous. Male flowers, sepalse 3, but 2 connate; sta 6 (not 1). Female flowers, normal; seeds glistening yellow, smooth.

Ceylon.

Hooker l.c. compared this with E. Sieboldianum, but the black anthers and flatter head sufficiently distinguish it. Hooker also in error described the male flowers as having only one stamen. There are 6 quite clearly in the plant quoted above. It was referred to E. truncatum Ham. by Trimen, and though differing in its flower and in the involucre being less horizontal is clearly allied to that species.