A ae yn es enema nee meee, 
Neuracanthus. | XCVIII. ACANTHACEE (CLARKE). 137 
35. NEURACANTHUS, Nees; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 1093. 
Calyx in two pieces; posticous lip 3-fid or nearly entire ; anticous lip 
2-fid or nearly entire, Corolla }~2 in. in total length, upper half funnel- 
shaped with 5 short triangular lobes, plicate ; lobes 3-nerved connected 
by nerveless membranous intermediate portions. Stamens 4; 2 anticous 
with 2-celled anthers; 2 posticous with 1-celled anthers; anther-cells 
oblong, muticous; connective, often puberulous; filaments usually 
sparsely hairy ; pollen somewhat tetrahedroid or nearly globose, smooth 
or obscurely reticulate, without meridional depressions. Ovary glabrous; 
ovules 2-1 in each cell; style short, glabrous; stigma of one oblong 
lobe. Capsule } in. long or less, ovoid, compressed, beaked, 4- (or 
generally 2-) seeded. Seeds discoid, covered with hairs in tufts, each 
hair spirally marked within, unrolling on applying water.—Small 
shrubs, varying much in general appearance, Jeaves, indumentum and 
inflorescence ; very uniform in the structure of the flowers. Inflores- 
cence of condensed unilateral spikes, or of few-flowered elongated 
Spikes, or reduced to a single flower, strobilate or scattered ; bract 
ovate or linear, sometimes spinous; bracteoles 0. 
Species 12, in Tropical Africa and India. 
Bracts ovate or obovate, never reduced to linear spines. 
Spikes 2 in. long, definitely strobilate. 
Spike 3 in. broad, with small white hairs 
Spike 3 in. broad, with long tawny hairs 
Spike 3 in. broad, grey-villous 
Spikes in ovoid heads. 
Heads axillary, sessile. 
N. africanus. 
N. decorus. 
N. strobilinus. 
wwe 
Stem and leaves minutely scabrous beneath 4, NV, seaber, 
Stem and leaves with many-celled hairs beneath . 5. NV. wkambensis, 
Stem and leaves white-tomentose beneath . 6. N. niveus, 
Heads on short lateral branches . . . . 7. N, Lindaui, 
Bracts spinescent, if sterile reduced to linear spines. 
(Young parts at least white-stellate-tomentose.) 
Fertile spikes 1-flowered . . . . . . & polyacanthus. 
Fertile spikes strobilate, few-flowered . . . 9. N. Robecchit. 
I. N. africanus, S. Moore in Jowrn. Bot. 1880, 37. Branches 
slender, woody, minutely pubescent. Leaves 4} by 2 in., narrowed 
at both ends, entire, minutely pubescent on the nerves beneath, other- 
Wise glabrous, cystoliths conspicuous on both faces, base narrow, 
cordate-truncate; petiole 0-1 in. long. Spikes 2 by } in., axillary, 
linear-cylindric, strobilate, apparently simple; bract } in. long, obovate, 
suddenly subspine-tipped. Calyx } in. long, in 2 pieces, slightly hairy ; 
anticous piece shortly 2-toothed ; posticous shortly 3-toothed. ‘Pollen 
subglobose, without longitudinal depressions, obscurely reticulate. 
“apsule 4 in. long, 2-seeded.—Lindau in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 
WV. 3B. 315. Barleria Sacani, Klotzsch ex Lindau in Engl. Pfl. Ost- 
Afr. C. 368, 
Mozamb, Dist. Portuguese East Africa: Lower Zambesi; Lupata, Kirk ! 
Tete, Peters ! 
