beautifulflowers032840mbp

134 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS OF KASHMIR [Plate M
Phlomis bracteosa, Eoyle.
An erect, hairy herb, 1-3 ft. high. Stem simple or branched,
4-angled. Leaves 2-4 in. long, stalked, egg-shaped, blunt,
crenate, base broadly heart-shaped. Flowers nearly 1 in.
long, dull blue-purple, crowded in large axillary whorls, 1-lJ in.
diameter. Bracts long, ciliate, outer membranous, lanceshaped
or linear, tip not spinous, inner narrower. Calyx
i-i in. long ; teeth 5, Lnear-lance-shaped, ciliate, half as long
as or shorter than the tube. Corolla-tube included ;
limb
2-lipped, upper lip erect, hood-like, very hairy, lower spreading,
3-lobed, midlobe the longest. Stamens 4, in unequal pairs,
ascending under the upper lip. Nutlets -i in. long, inversely
egg-shaped, tip rounded.
Flowers. June.
Locality. Hayan Pass ; below Basam Gali ; Dudhganga
forest in stony river-bed ; Tragbol and Shapryon, 7,000-
8,500 ft.
Distribution. W. temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to
Kumaon, 5,000-11,000 ft., Afghanistan.
THYMELAEACEAE.
(From the Greek thymes, thyme, and elaia, the olive, alluding to
the leaves and fruit of the genus Thymelaea.)
WIK8TROEMIA, Endl.
(After J. E. Wikstrom, a Swedish botanist of the last century.)
Fig. 5.
Wikstroemia canescens, Meissn.
(Canescens means hoary.)
A small shrub, 1-3 ft. high, silky-hairy. Leaves 1-3 in.
loag, alternate or nearly opposite, short-stalked, thin, oblonglance-shaped,
sharp-pointed, usually hairless above and hairy
beneath ;
stalk in. long, often with a small white bud in the
axil. Flowers yellow or white, in heads or spikes forming
terminal panicles. Perianth-tube \ in., slender, hairy outside ;
lobes small, blunt. Filaments short. Disk of 4 or 5 erect,
linear scales. Ovary hairy ; styles short ; stigma large,
globose. Fruit J in. long, narrowly egg-shaped, silky, enclosed
at first in the perianth which at last splits and falls off, black
when ripe.