Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/648

206 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. petala parva, subequalia ; antherae nigrae. Flos } : — sepala acqualia, nigrescentia ; petala angusta-oblanceolata. Burma : Pegu, Kurz.

This may be considered a very pronounced stage in the lengthening of the involucral bracts, begun in this series by var. Martiana of E.guinquangulare and it might perhaps be more properly considered a variety of that species. Its close relationship is shown in the very similar flowers, and the leaves being red or drying red. Of the young heads the involucral bracts are not much longer than the others, they lengthen with age,

18. E. trilobum Ham. ; F. B. I. vi 583, No. 37 ; Euhl. No. 88 Habit of E. quinquancjulare L., but the heads as a rule smaller, 1/8-1/6 in diam., darker, and the involucral bracts more conspicuously reflexed. Leaves not drying red. Plate 10.

N. W. Himalayas ; Kumaon ; Dharmasala ; Bengal, in rice fields (Wallich)

This species exactly resembles E. Dianae, var triloboides in the Bombay Presidency, except in the reduction in the latter of one female sepal.

I am however uncertain of the identification of the sheets in the Calcutta Herbarium, for Koerniche describes the female sepals as " carinatae, dorso anguste spongioso alatae ", which they are not in these plants, yet there does not appear to be any other plant from Bengal to answer to the rest of the description.

19. E. collinum Hook f. (Thwaites enum, 44, C. P. 1000 in Herb. Kew ! ) ; F. B. I. vi 584 No. 41 ; Euhl. No. 127. ; Fyson Fl. N. & P. H. T. pp. 430,-1. incl. E. Ghristopheri Fyson and E. Oliver i Fyson Stem O or elongate. Leaves 1 1/2-2 1/2 in. by 1/4 in., flat obtuse or if submerged subulate. Scapes many 3-8 in. Sheath about as long as the leaves. Heads 1/4 in., dark, globose. Involucral bracts dark or the outermost or all pale, at length reflexed. Flora dark, obovate cuspidate, sparingly hairy. Receptacle conical. Flowers normal, the sepals dark. Female sepals in Ceylon two boat-shaped, one flat ; in South India all equally boat-shaped. Male petals well developed, slightly unequal.

South India ; on the Nilgiris, Pulneys, Anamalais, etc., at high elevations. Ceylon ; Newara Eliya and Highlands. Flowering in the early part of the summer.

The species varies considerably, possibly in relation only to the environ- ment. The plants are nearly always gregarious, but sometimes in dense clumps, the soapes being numerous and tufted ; sometimes more or less free, the scapes rising each from its own rosette of leaves. The leaves in the type sheet are linear-oblong, about 1 inch by 1/10 inch, with scapes of 7 or 8 times as high, but I find every variation to leaves which may be as much as half as long as the scapes ; they may also taper from a broad base evenly to the tip or be narrow and acicular. They are usually thin or flaccid but may be coriaceous. The heads typically gray with black involucre may be almost white with colourless (pale) involucral bracts. The male petals are not quite equal and in one Pulney plant one male petal of the lowest