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ovulæ 4, styles 2, divergent, filiform, stigmata discoid orbicular, continuous (not peltate). Capsule chartaceous, dry hairy towards apex, longer than the dry calyx, 2-celled, sept membranous, 4 valved, seeds from 2 to 3, oblong, black, very minutely scrobiculate, of a nutty hard

ness.

50.

51.

Evolvulus linifolius, base of Halas.

Cressa Cretica, Var: Indica; all Sinde.

Scævolaceæ.

52. Scævola Taccada, Roxb. tops of sand hills near Kurrachee.

Plantagineæ.

53. Plantago amplexicaulis, Cuv. Hala mountains.

Plumbagineæ.

54. Ægialites obovata, Vic.: sand hills, Kurrachee, shrub of 2 feet, stems ligneous, annulate with the ensheathing bases of fallen leaves, densely foliaceous upwards, leaves blunt cuneate-obovate, retuse, glaucous hoary, smooth, articulated to the sheaths at base, spikes paniculate, flexuose, terminal flowers secund, utriculus bursting at apex into 5 short acute teeth.

Boragineæ.

55. Heliotropium Rotleri. Kurrachee.

56. Echium? Hala Range. I am unable to refer this to any of the many described species, and therefore attach my note.

Plant fruticose, erect, about a foot in height, growing from fissures in rocks. Younger stems, leaves and calyces densely clothed with short appressed striga. Leaves 5-6 lines long, ligulate-linear, blunt pointed, sessile, alternate. Racemes simple, many flowered; flowers solitary, sessile, secund, bluish white, bracts like the leaves but smaller, bracteolæ none, pedicels short, adherent to rachis for half their length. Calyx with blunt linear unequal segments (sometimes only 4, the fourth broader); corol tube 10-nerved with a ring of hairs within at base, smooth in the middle and the faux closed with hairs which indistinctly form 5 very small tubes between the anthers; lobes of limb patent, blunt ovate, slightly auricled at base (one lobe often broader). Margins minutely and remotely toothed. Stamens not exsert, filaments very short, anthers mutic, linear oblong blunt and undivided at base, style shortly exsert, its base becoming angular in seed; stigma peltate capitate with two minute central points, acheniæ rather smooth with

an incurved point, one or two, often only one maturing, attached to base of style, perforation at base oblong triangular.

57. Trichodesma Indica, Sinde passim.

58. Trichodesma Africanum, R. B.? Hala mountains.

I have referred this to the above with some doubt; it has the same prickly hispid habit, but differs in some particulars; plant growing from fissures in rocks, erect, 1 to 1 feet. Leaves and stems dark green, hispid from hard white prickle bearing calli, leaves opposite at the divisions of the racemes, otherwise alternate, upper leaves subsessile, lanceolate, acute, prickles longer on the margins and midrib beneath. Racemes lax, the lower ones from opposite axillæ upwards, from alternate axillæ and terminal; peduncles usually 3-flowered, lengthening with the enlarging calyx in seed: bracteolæ none; calyx rigid, hairy, 5angled with rounded auriculæ, segments acute, corol blue with caudate lobes, stigma simple, blunt, pedicels lengthened with the much increased and nutant calyx in seed, acheniæ 4, subtrigonal; the outer faces concave, marginate, the margin acutely serrulate with slightly glochidate teeth.

My specimens do not exhibit the lower leaves.

Salvia.

Labiata.

59. Salvia Egyptica, Linn.: slopes of Hala mountains. 60. Salvia pumila, Benth: slopes of Hala mountains.

Salvia Halaensis, Vic.: slopes of Hala mountains. Plant of 10-12 inches, erect, old stems ligneous, younger stems obsoletely 4-angled, densely clothed with short hairs, and sessile yellow glands,leaves much corrugated, cordate-ovate, and broad ovate, blunt or rounded; slightly winging the short petioles, and often forming 2 lateral denticula at their apices; margins undulate lobate-crenate. Racemes 2-3 inches long, dense flowered subspicate; flowers blue, solitary, almost sessile; floral leaves small, bractea-formed, ovate, entire, hairy and longly ciliate, bracteolæ nearly as long as bracts; linear-lanceolate, hairy; calyx lanatopilose, enlarging and becoming nutant with the lengthening pedicel; upper lip shortly tridentate; the midtooth smaller, all acute, lower lip 2 part with linear filiform lobes. Corol, upper lip erect, short, bifid; midlobe of lower lip orbicular emarginate.

The acheniæ of this plant give out much mucilage in water.

Verbenacea.

62. Verbena officinalis? Spurs of the Hala mountains, Lower Sinde. I have refered this doubtfully to V. officinalis. The foliage of my specimens is from the ends of the flowering branches. The leaves are petioled, opposite and alternate, both surfaces shortly pilose, ovate and broad-ovate, blunt or emarginate, 5-nerved, margin serrate with the three serratures at apex larger.

Scrophularina.

63. Linaria sindensis, Vic.: Base of Hala mountains, Upper and Lower Sinde. This plant is extremely like L. triphylla. Herbaceous, stems procumbent, or semi-erect, 8 to 10 inches; leaves scattered, solitary, glaucous, entire, ovate narrowed into and winging the petioles; apices soft-pointed; young leaves often shortly pubescent; flowers purple tinged, yellow, subsessile, axillary, solitary, bracteolæ none; upper lobe of calyx foliaceous, broad-ovate, greatly exceeding the other 4; linear lanceolate lobes, lower stamens with their anthers united; stigma simple; capsule obliquely globular, 2-celled, upper cell abortive, lower cell many-seeded, bursting irregularly; seeds conic. Testa spongy,

furrowed.

Linaria ramosissima, Wall.: Hala mountains; the Sinde plant is softly pilose, in other respects it is the same.

Anticharis. Endlich: Hala mountains.

A. Viscosa, Vic.: This plant belongs most certainly to Endlicher's genus, and probably to the very species, but as I have no means of refering to the specific characters given, I have allowed my Herbarium name to stand for the present.

The Sinde plant is so viscous that everything adheres to it. Flowers blue, leaves ovate-lanceolate, narrowed into the short petioles: pedicels short, minutely bibracteolate above the middle seeds: truncate oblong, longitudinally grooved with minute transverse striæ.

Solanacea.

Solanum Forskalii, Dun: cordatum, Fors: Hala mountains; both species appear to be different forms of the same plant; our Sinde plant is sometimes prickly, sometime not, the leaves are variable also. Stems slender; prickles both curved and straight, near the ends of the branches only; young shoots and leaves starry pubescent, old leaves smooth, round-cordate or subcordate at base, narrowed into the petioles; mar

gin entire or occasionally sinuate toothed flowers rather longly pedicelled, blue; the corol greatly exceeding the half 5 cleft calyx; berry red, smooth rather, larger than a pea.

Physalis somnifera, var flexuosa, all Sinde, and Hala mountains.
Hyocyamus muticus, Lin. Hala mountains.

Аросупеӕ.

Rhazya stricta, Decaisne. This shrub is abundant in the Hala mountains, and at their eastern bases, but particularly at Shahpoor. It usually grows upon sandhills, and has somewhat the habit of our garden Oleander, but does not rise to more than three feet. The flowers are pale blue turning white by age. There is a small entire margined nectarium. Asclepiadea.

Periploca aphylla, Dec. Bot. Jacq. All hilly parts of Sinde.

This is my friend Dr. Falconer's Campelepis. Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. X. page 362. This shrub abounds in the Boogtee Beloch hills near Deyrah.

The habit is that of Orthanthera Viminea; the branches are devoid of all pubes. The leaves are linear lanceolate (not ovate,) and are seen only on the young surculi. The flowers are of a dark dull red colour; the long uncinate filiform processes of the faucial corona, are inflected over the genitalia in the earlier stages of the flower, but subsequently become reflexed through the divisions of the corol. The pollen of this plant requires to be re-examined in the fresh flowers in my opinion it not only differs from that of Periploca, but from the pollen of every genus of the order.

Orthanthera Viminea. All Sinde.

With few exceptions the above noted plants are foreign to our Indian Flora, flourishing between the parallels 25° and 30° N. Lat. or nearly equivalent to the tract between Allahabad and Hurdwar. At first sight it appears strange that so many northern forms should exist in Sinde in excess of those found between the same parallels in India, but a slight examination of the countries forming our northern frontier will I think sufficiently account for it. The Himalaya mountains, the Hindoo Coosh, and probably the Tukt-i-Sulleemaun range, form an impassable barrier to certain classes of plants, but the lower ranges of the Hala mountains, which in many places are not more than 1,500 feet above the sea, offer no such obstacle; besides this there is the coast line, which with its constantly drifting sands offers a facile mode of trans

mission to seeds; thus we find several Egyptian, Arabian, Persian and African plants in Sinde; that they have not spread into India seems also easily accounted for. The Indian desert of Jesulmeer proves in a south eastern direction a sufficient preventative. The course viâ the banks of the Indus is to a narrow extent only open to the north-east, and accordingly we find some Egyptian forms extending to Delhi and its neighbourhood, as has been remarked by my friend Doctor Royle in his illustrations of Indian Botany, p. 70, and p. 160.

Salvadora persica, Capparis aphylla and Farsetia, are found throughout Sinde; however Giseckia so abundant near Ferozepoor, is not found in Lower Sinde; Orobanche Calotropidis, Edgw: is found from Umballa to Kurrachee, and is extremely abundant in Lower Sinde; the flowers of this plant are changeable, being blue at first and becoming pale yellow, hence two varieties have been supposed to exist. No scitameneous or orchideous plant exists in Sinde; of the latter order Zeuxine is sparingly found under the Tamarisks, nearly as far as Subzulkote, following the course of the river.

The coast line alluded to above offers no obstacle to the diffusion of plants in a southerly direction viâ Cutch and Goozerat towards Bombay, but as yet these countries, the Delta of the Indus and the south-western tail of the desert are botanically unknown; in the other direction a botanical excursion to Sonmeeanee Bay or farther if possible, would serve to connect our Indian flora with that of Africa, Persia and Arabia. I have still some curious Sinde plants of which I hope to give an account hereafter.

Subathoo, 27th September, 1847.

Reply to the Minute by Capt. MUNRO, regarding the MS. of the "Burnes drawings."-By E. BLYTH, Esq.

6

To the Secretaries of the Asiatic Society. GENTLEMEN,-As it has been deemed expedient to publish in the Proceedings of the Society' the minute by Capt. W. Munro, reflecting (as I cannot but think) with very undue severity on the mode in which I have prepared the descriptive letter-press to illustrate the lithographed drawings of the late Sir A. Burnes, I must now request that you will permit me to be heard in reply, and that you will favor me by awarding the same publicity to this letter as has been granted to the aspersions in question.

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