Scilla is a genus of about 100 species of bulbous plants which are natives of Europe and extra-tropical regions of Asia and Africa. Scilla indica is widely distri buted over central India, the Deccan Peninsula and Sri Lanka, and is highly poly morphic, populations exhibiting marked phenotypic variations in different geogra phical regions of the country often looking like different species. Reports on the chromosome number of this taxon in India are varying. Raghavan and Venkata subban (1939) were the first to investigate the cytological aspects of S. indica which they had collected from the Madras area in India. In this, they described three distinct karyotypes with 2n=44, 45, 46 chromosomes and considered them as three aneuploid races. Bhaduri (1944) confirmed the number as 2n=44 in the material obtained from Raghavan. Sheriff and Murthy (1946) were the first to report 2n= 30 chromosomes in S. indica occurring in the Kolar Hills area in Karnataka State in south India. Sunder Rao (1953) reported 2n=58 in S. indica collected from the Sagar area in Madhya Pradesh in central India and considered it as yet another chromosome race distinct from those studied by Raghavan and Venkatasubban. This rather confusing cytological picture of the taxon in the country prompted the author to subject this taxon to a detailed cytological survey on a regional and popu lation-wise basis. The results were highly rewarding and provided a clear picture of the cytological set-up of this taxon in the country. A paper, the first in the series, dealt with the cytogeographical aspects of the taxon collected from different geo graphical regions of central and south India, all at the diploid level with 2n=30 chromosomes and thus establishing the basic number of 15 for the taxon in the country (Sheriff 1975). The present paper, the second in the series, deals with the cytogeographical aspects of two unique populations of S. indica both of which represent well established triploids with 2n=45, which are found confined and isolated in the Madras area and which were formerly mistaken to be aneuploid races. Material and methodsLiving plants were collected from two areas in Madras, the Adyar seaside area and the Saidapet Teachers College area. In both the places the plants were found growing wild. At Adyar, the plants (designated as Collection S-24) were found in great abundance and robust looking. Their leaves were relatively broad with large dark blotches on their surface, a few of the leaves bearing bulbils at their tips
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