"If the nutlets have a thick and fleshj- pericarp and a haBilar surfaoa of insertion then the
position you give to the genus would be very good.
"At oil events, the plant represents Q new genas and your desoripfcion gives a good idea o£ it."
ri.ATE 75.—J, branch of Eurysolen gracilis Prain, from the KaoLin Hills,—o/" natural me;
2, cyme, one flower fully opened x 4; 3, calyx, laid open x 4; 4, half of corolla, showing
fionulus, saccate pouoli and staminal insertion x 5; 5, ovary with style x 5; 6, anthers, and 7,
•vertical section through base of flower,—ioiA comiderabli/ enlarged.
D. P.
83. GoMPHOSTEiiyA INOPINATUM Praia in Journ. As. Soe. Bmg., kix. 3. 172 (1900).
Natural order Labiat®.
A stout herb; stems about 30 cm. high, ascending, rooting below, 4-grooved, with
rounded angles, several from a woody stock, with dense, ash-grey, stellate tomentnm
and with copious, lax, spreading, white pubescence intermixed; leaves 4—6 pairs, the
lowest small, the pairs 8—10 cm. apart, petioles 3-5—4 cm. (occasionally as much as
5 cm. long), pubescent like the stems but with fewer long las white hairs in proportion
to the stellate pubescence; lamina broadly ovate-acute, 8—13 cm. long, 4-5—7-5 cm.
wide, the base of tlie lower leaves slightly cuneate, of the upper rounded; margin
finely crenate except the basal fifth; nerves about six pairs ascending; upper surface
finely velvety with a soft, ash-grey, stellate pubescence interspersed with longer simple
subadpressed tomentum, under surface softly velvety with a felted, whitish-grey, stellate
pubescence; flowers densely whorled, in radical spikes 5 cm. long, 3 cm. wide, on
erect peduncles 8—15 cm. long with sometimes a pair of small foliaceous bracts about
6 mm. below the spike; peduncles pubescent like the stem but terete and more slender;
floral bracts obovate, dentate, sparsely stellate-pubescent, tinged with pink, the lowest
l-2o cm. long, -6 cm. wide; calyx wide-campauulate, glabrous within, tube rather
closely stellate externally, limb with 5 equal, wide-triangular, claret or purple lobes
sparsely stellate on the strongish central and weaker margiaal nerves, 1-35 cm, long,
I cm. wide, the lobes -5 cm. long; bracteoles obovate-lanceolate, 5—6 mm. long, reddish;
corolla 2 cm. long, upper lip subentire, lower 3-lobed with slightly emarginate' mid-lobe
nod inflated throat, hairy (apparently annulate) within; slame/ts exserted, filaments
hirsute at their insertion; ovar^/ and style glabrous; mlkls usually 4, sometimes 2—3,
reddish, quite glabrous, wall very thickly coriaceous when dry.
UPPER BUEMA: Kachin Hills at Langkon, 3,000 feet elevation; Prain's Collecior!
Only one of the specimens had a few rather shrivelled corollas, from two of these,
soaked as carefully as possible, the above description is given. Their colour is not
particularly noted by the native collector, who simply remarks "flowers red," with
reference doubtless to the purple or claret-coloured calyx. Further examination of lesa
advanced specimens will be required in order to confirm the existence of a distinct
annulus. Its other characters however amply justify its title to specific rank. It is
not very like any of the hitherto described Indian Gomphosiemmata. The fact that the
flowers occur on independent leafless stems or scapos recalls the habit of G, chínente
Oliv., and the fact that the calyx and less markedly the bracteoles are purple-coloured
recalls also G. Ctirtisii, and G pedunculatum which are the other members of the group
Pedunculaia to which G. chincnse belongs. The general facies of the species nevertheless
rather recalls the Sirobilina group of the § Fogosiphon to which, from the presence of
haivs within the corolla tube, it mu!-t necessarily be referred. If, however, we are right
in supposing that these hairs form a distinct annulus, instead of being scattered as in
the other Strobiliita, it must be considered in this respect as linking that group with
the hitherto somewhat isolated G. Eemsleyanum.
This is tho second new species recorded since the publication by the writer in
1891 of An Account of the genvs Gomphostemma (Ann, Roy. Bot. Gard., Calcutta, iii. 227 et
seq.). The other species, Gomphostemma furfuraceum Hallier fil., has been very fully and
accurately described and figured by its author, after comparison with the material in the
Calcutta Herbarium, in Bull de Vherhier boissier vi. 361, 622 t. 9, f. 1 a—c (1898)
I t is a species of § Magomphostemma, group MelissifoUa, and as its bracts are not longer
than the calyx it comes nearest to G. velutinum and G. Mastersii. The outer bracts are
however in shape like those of G. ovatum and G. melissifoliun so that it stands, as its
author has already indicated, intermediate between G. ovatum and G. Mastersii. It is a
native of Eastern Sumatra.
PLATE 76.—Gomphostemma inopinatum Prain. 1, plant from the Kaohin Hills,—of natural sise;
2, flower, with bract and bracteoles; 3, corolla, laid open; 4, calyx, in fruit, laid open to show
nutleta iu position; 5, single nutlet; 6, the same laid open showing seed within,—a« enlarged.
8L. NEPETA PBAINII Duthie,
JSalural order Labiatse.
Whole plant 3—4'3 dm. high, glandular-pubescent; rhizome woody; stems
many, simple or branched, erect, rigid, scabrous, the lower portions hispid with stiff
spreading hairs; leaves ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, rounded or cordate at the base,
coarsely crenate, rugose on the upper surface, prominently veined beneath; lower
leaves distinctly petioled, the upper smaller and subsessile; floral leaves linear-lanceolate,
acuminate, about 6 mm. long; verticillasters many-flowered; the lower ones
distant and peduncled, the upper sessile; flowers hermaphrodite; bracts about i the
length of the calyx, linear-lanceolate or setaceous, clothed with atifi spreading hairs;
calyx strongly l5-nerved, hispid with spreading hairs; tube cylindrical, curved, reddishpurple;
mouth oblique; teeth lanceolate acuminate, \ the length of the tube; corolla
distinctly 2-Iipped, exceeding the calyx; upper lip erect, obcordate; lower deeply
3-lobed, hairy inside towards the base; side-lobes rounded; terminal bifid at the
apex, its sides 3-lobulate; stamens slightly exserted, about equal in length, the anterior
pair attached lower down on the corolla-tube than the posterior pair; filaments haii-y
towards their bases; style about as long as the stamens; nutlets undev 2 mm. long,
oblong-oval, muriculate.
N.-W. FRONTIER : Kurram Valley ; Duthie's collector (No. 15432); SamSna range,
E. C. Hare.
This very distinct species falls, by its characters, into the section SUnosteffice
Boiss. 2, b (Fior. Orient iv, 638).