124 XCVIII. ACANTHACEE (CLARKE). [ Lepidagathis. 
7. L. anobrya, Nees in DC. Prod. xi. 255. Leaves up to 7 by } in., 
glabrate, 3-nerved. Inflorescence of several radical heads (one head 
seen in an axil } way up a branch), prickly; bract 4-3 in., narrow- 
lanceolate, sparsely hairy. Sepals 5, with soft white hair or nearly 
glabrate; posticous sepal 4 in. or more long, elliptic, suddenly narrowed 
into a straight linear point ; two anticous sepals with lamina } in. broad- 
obovate, suddenly narrowed into a falcate subreflexed linear point. 
Capsule scarcely } in. long, 2-seeded.—Benth, in Hook. Niger Fl. 480; 
T. Anders. in Journ. Linn. Soe. vii. 33. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot, 204! 
8. L. myrtifolia, S. Moore in Journ. Bot. 1880, 38. Stems 2-3 ft. 
high, flexuous, creeping, slender, pubescent (apparently applied to a rock 
or tree, rooting, and flowering chiefly in the axils immediately above 
the attachment). Leaves 1 by 4 in., elliptic, triangular-pointed apicu- 
late, nearly sessile, when mature nearly glabrous shining, not 3-nerved ; 
cystoliths obscure. Inflorescences radical and scattered, of dense small 
ovoid heads % in. in diam., softly white-hairy, hardly prickly; bract 
3 in. long, lanceolate, acuminate, white-hairy. Sepals 5, }-2 in. long, 
acuminate, acute, softly white-hairy, and with some gland-tipped hairs ; 
posticous sepal ;1,—} in. broad, oblong-lanceolate. Corolla % in. long. 
Pollen ellipsoid with 3 longitudinal depressions and 3 pores; the inter- 
mediate surface granular, scarcely obsoletely reticulate. Ovule 1 10 
each cell, fide S. Moore. 
Nile Land. British East Africa: Jur; Gir, Schweinfurth, 2493! 
Bentham observes (in Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl, ii. 1101) that, though in one 
plant of this genus the cells of the ovary are l-ovulate, he found a minute rudimentary 
second ovule. This occurs frequently in Barleria, In these genera, which have 
4-seeded and 2-seeded species, little weight can be attached to the character “ ovary- 
cells 2-ovulate, or 1-ovulate, or 1-ovulate with a more or less rudimentary lower ovule 
added,” 
9. L. sparsiceps, (. B. Clarke. Branches and mature leaves 
nearly glabrous. Leaves 2} by ;},—1 in., 3-nerved, with transverse 
cystoliths on the upper surface. Heads up to 2 in. long and broad, 
obconoid, 1 (more rarely 2-3) axillary, scattered nearly the whole length 
of the branches (no basal heads seen). Calyx and corolla nearly as © 
L. radicalis, linear tips of the sepals rather longer with very much soit 
white hair. Polien ellipsoidal, with 3 longitudinal depressions a0 
pores, scarcely reticulated. 
Mozamb. Dist. British Central Atrica: Nyasaland; ‘Tanganyika Plateau, 
2000-3000 ftt., Whyte! Nyika Plateau, 6000-7000 ft., Whyte! Manganja Hills, 
2000 ft., Kirk ! 
This plant, in its glabrous linear 3-nerved leaves, is very near L. Schweinfurthit ; the 
scattered more hairy white heads differ. 
10. L. lanatoglabra, (’. B. Clarke. Tips of barren branches and 
uppermost leaves white-woolly, other leaves nearly glabrous. Leaves 
24 by 4'5-} in., 3-nerved, with transverse cystoliths on the upper 
