5 mm: long and 3 mm. wide; icapea simple, slender, 1-flowered, tlie buds at fiiBt
u o d d i a g ; Jloivers rather large, 4cm. across, blue; sepak 2, ovate, 12 mm. long, 8 mm.
w i d e ; pe/a/s usually 4, but occasionally 5, 3 cm. long, 2 cm. acrosa, ovate-rotund •
CO, about 80, the filaments filiform, 6 mm. long, glabrous, the anthers oblong,
apparently golden-yellow, 2 5 mm. long, hardly 1 mm. wido ; omry ovate, slightly
setose below, glabrous above, 5 mm. long, placentas 4 - 5 , hardly intruded, style distinct,
2—3 mm. long ; ripe capsules obpyriform, lo mm. long, tapering below into a false
stipe 4 mm. long ; seeds numerous, 1-35 mm. long, -3 mm. wide, testa lax, pseudostrophiolate;
embryo small, basilar.
EA8TERS HIMALATA : Sikkim, in Jongri at Pey-kiong-la, about 13,000 foet above
sea-level and at Nyegu oa the Nepalese frontier, about 14,000 feet elev.; Colleclora of
Oakutta Bota>m Garden I
A protty little species, with leaves like those of a Oorydali». It flowers iu July.
All the specimens received up to 1894 had buen quite glabrous, but some, obtained iu
189(3 by the orchid-collectors working for Sir George King and Mr. Pantling, have
sparingly setulose scapes and leaf stalks.
PLATE é.-Meconopsis bolla Prai>x. 1, flowariag plaat ; 2, fruiting plant,-«/ mtural size ; 8,
stamen ; 4, ovary ; 5, another ovary, out triiaaversely ; 6, ripe oapsals ; 7, seed,—more or lees
eniarijed. Specimens from Pey-kiong-la, in Jongri.
P L A T E 5.
5. MECONOPSIS SUPERBA Kihg ex Prain in Joiirn. As. Snc. Bcng. Ixiv. 2. 317 (1896).
Natural order Papaveraceie.
A tall, softly hairy herb probably 15—20 dm. high, stems 4 cm. in diam, about
5 dm. from the top, simple, hirsute like the leaves with soft, spreading, flexuous hair
and densely clothed with soft, grey pubescence; cauline leaoes sessile, amplexicaui,
oboTate-oblong, serrate, acute, 25—50 cm. long, 7—10 cm. wide, passing upwards into
similar but smaller bracts; eymes simple, rather dense-flowered, pedicels short, never
exceeding 3 cm., 3—3 in each a t i l ; Jlowcrs white, nearly 10 cm. wide; sepals 4-5 cm.
long; margins of peiah entire; ooarj globose, 7—ll-valved, densely clothed with
adprcssed setae and with close stellate pubescence.
EASTERN HIMAIATA; Ho-ko-chu in Chumbi, about 10,000 ft. above sea-level • Collectors
of the Calvutta Satanic Garden !
This very fine plant has been only once collectad; it is perhaps no more than a
f o rm of Meconopsis prnkuluta Prain (M. napaulenais Walp., TI. f . ^ T. but not of DC)
The chief difFerences are the larger size of all its parts, the white not yellow petals
and the serrate but not lobed cauline leives. The ovary is quite like that of M
pan'.culata ; the fruit is unknown.
PIATE 5.—Meconopsis suporba Ring. 1, top of Soneria;? stem,-»/ mUirai ¡KM; 2, stamens;
8, oyary,—enlarffed. Specimen from Ilo-ko-cliu, Cbumbi,
Ü. K.i D. P.
6. MECONOPSIS SINUATA Prain in Journ. As. Soc. Bcng. Ixiv. 2. 314 (1896).
Natural order Ps paveraceaB.
A tall, annual herb with a fusiform rootstock 10—16 cm. long, 1 cm. thick, the
neck clothed with old leaf-sheaths ; stem 30—90 cm. high, smooth except for scattered
prickles, leafy throughout; leaves oblong-lanceolate, obtuse with sinuate margins, 10—18
cm. long, 3—5 cm. wide, sparsely prickly, radical and lower cauline with petioles 4—6
cm. long, upper cauline passing into bracts, sessile, subamplexicaul; cymes few-flowered;
flov>ers pale blue-purple, 5—7 cm. across, pedicels bracteate, slender, prickly, 6—8 cm,
long, fastigiate in f r u i t ; sepals 2, prickly; petals 4; capsules elongated, narrowly obconic,
4—5 cm. long., 1 cm. in diam. towards upper third, sparsely prickly, at length almost
smooth, style 5—12 mm. long , stigma small; seeds scaberulous, hilum slightly crested.
EASTEEN HIMALAYA: Sikkim, at Patang-la, Pey-kicmg-la, and Ney-go-la, 10—12,000
f t . ; Colkciors of Calcutta Botanic Garden! Jongri, 12,000 f t . ; G. A. Gammie ! Bootan, in
the Dichu Valley, about 11,000 f t . ; Cummins J
This species has much the habit of Meconopsis aculcata Royle, a North-West
H i m a l a j a n plant, and appears to be the representative of Royle's plant in the Eastern
Himalaya: what seems to be a variety of our plant occurs in Szechuen. Meconopsis
sinuata has, however, leaves that difier from those of M. aculeata in being merely
sinuate instead of irregularly pinnatifid, and has very dissimilar capsules, those of
M. aadeata being densely aculeate and short-oblong, only about twice as long as
their styles.
PI.ATE 6. Meconopsis sinuata Prain. 1, flowering plant ; 2, rootstook ; 3, top of fruiting plant,—
0/ nulurat size; 4, stamens; 6, ovary; 6, ripe capsule; 7, the sama, out transversely; S, seed,—«//
enlarged. Flowering speoimc-n from Poy-kiong-la; fruiting specimen from Dichu Valley.
PLATE 7.
7. CAINCARTIA LVRATA Cunm. Prain in Journ. ./li. Sue. Beng. Ixiv. 3. 325 (1896).
Natural order Papaveraco®.
A small glabrescent herb with a rootstock slender throughout or swollen towards
the neck which is clothed with sheaths, 2—3 cm. long; stems simple or sparingly
branched, 8—25 cm. high, about as thick as a crow-quill or less, glabrous or very
sparingly hairy; radical leaoes few, early withering; cauliiie 3—4, from hiiatate-entirc to
lyrate-pinnatifid, spaiingly hii-sute on both surfaces, green above, glaucescent beneath,
lobes rounded, 2—4 cm. long, 1—2 cm. wide, petioles 2—4 cm. long; flowers 1—3
(oflenest solitary), cymoae; pedicels slender, 8—10 cm. long; buds nodding, 7 mm. iu
diam.; full-blown flowers 2 ñ cm. across ; sepals orbicular, glabrous, green; petals blue, 4,
narrowly to widely lanceolate, rounded or obtuse rarely acute, always faintly críspate at
margin; sUimcns 10 in 2 rows of 8 each; ovary narrow-ovate, style distinct, stigma small
2—:Mobod, placentus 2—3, distinctly intruded ; capsules 4 cm. long, very slender, ercct,
valves niemiu-aiious, dehiscing from a,pex downwards towards base; s;cds smooth,
uitcrcsted.