94 XCVIII, ACANTHACEE (CLARKE). | Blepharis. 
25. BLEPHARIS, Juss.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 1089. 
Calyx sub-4-partite to the base; 2 anticous segments connate nearly 
to the tip; posticous segment lanceolate 3-nerved, usually longer t nn 
the anticous; 2 interior segments narrow, long or short. Corol ; : 
posticous lip 0, replaced by a horny rim ; anticous lip nearly flat, 3- ; 
lobed, blueish, white, or fading to yellowish. Stamens 4, subsimilar ; 
anthers 1-celled, narrow-oblong, muticous, fringed with white hairs near 
the slit ; filaments of 2 anticous stamens more flattened with rudiments 
of missing anther more developed ; pollen longish-ellipsoid, with a few 
very narrow longitudinal smooth chinks not reaching the poles. Ovary 
with 2-1 ovules in each cell, glabrous ; style glabrous (rarely with afew 
thin hairs below), branches 2, lanceolate; at the apex of the ovary oe 
the posticous face are 2 hollows filled with glands. Capsule ellipson 
flattened, woody, shining-brown, 2- (rarely 4-) seeded ; seeds cove 
with rope-like hair-bundles, which on applying water unroll into very 
long 1-celled hairs each furnished with a spiral band within.—Hars 
prickly, or smooth slender, undershrubs without stellate or gland-tipped 
hairs, except in B. pungens. Leaves (in all Tropical African species, 
-except B. tetrasticha) by the adjacent pairs being drawn together appeal 
ing in whorls of 4, outer pair in each whorl often smaller, sometimes 
very much smaller, or reduced and almost resembling stipules. Spikes o 
flowers strobilate ; bract green, ovate or obovate, veined, nearly always 
spinous; bracteoles 2 or 0, linear, rarely lanceolate, 1-nerved, acute; 
in many spikes all the bracts except the highest sterile, so that these 
are commonly described as having solitary flowers. 
Species 50, nearly all African, many in South Africa, a few extending through 
Arabia and the Orient region to India. 
* Leaves not spinous on the margin (or with sometimes a 
few small spines, in 6, B. affinis, 14. B. linariefolia, 
and 15. B. Asteracanthus). 
Bracteoles none. Every flower with 3-6 sterile bracts 
below it. (Note that the true flower-bract is 
next the two connate anticous calyx-segments. 
The bracteoles, when present, are lateral, thin- 
textured, except the midrib). 
One-flowered branches solitary. 
Leaves 1-24 in, long, occasionally 4 in. long. 
Bract }-3 in. long. 
Bract spathulate or obovate, tip triangular 
obtuse. . . . . . 1. B. boerhaaviafolia. 
Bract broadly obovate tip lanceolate re- 
curved . . . . . 2. B. pinguior. 
Bract } in, long; corolla more than 1 in. long 3. B. cuanzensis. 
Bract 3 in. long, elliptic-lanceolate . 5. B. glumacea, 
Leaves 4-7 in. long; 1-flowered spikes pedicelled 4, B, hirtella. 
‘One-flowered branches approximated or in heads, 
Leaves linear ; inmost calyx-segments nearly as 
long as the others. . . . . 6. B. affinis. 
