140 XCVIII, ACANTHACEE (CLARKE). [ Vewracanthus. 
9, N. Robecchii, (. B. Clarke. Young parts white stellate- 
tomentose. Leaves 14 by 3 in., oblong-elliptic, when mature sparingly 
hairy, margin wavy-crenate, tip subobtuse, base tapering; petiole 
0-} in. long. Sterile spikes scorpioid, appearing as flexuous, many- 
prickled pubescent spines; fertile spike } in. long, strobilate, few- 
flowered; bract } in. long, subquadrate, suddenly spine-tipped. Calyx 
} in. long, woolly, of 2 pieces; anticous oblong 2-nerved, scarcely 
2-toothed; posticous ovate, 3-nerved, microscopically 3-toothed. Capsule 
} in. long, narrow-ovoid, acute, 2-seeded. Seeds densely woolly with 
hygroscopic hairs.—Leucobarleria Robecchii, Lindau in Ann. Istit. Bot 
Roma vi. (1896) 78, and in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. Nachtr. 
zu il.—iv. 306. 
Wile Land. Somaliland: Marehan, Rodecchi, 2384! 2394! 258. 
Also in Arabia. 
36. BARLERIA, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 1091. 
Calyx of 4 distinct segments, large; anticous segment of 2 sepals, 
connate quite or three-quarters of the way to the tip; posticous segment 
subsimilar ; 2 lateral segments within, narrow, usually much smaller. 
Corolla yellow or blue ; tube cylindric or the upper part funnel-shaped ; 
limb of 5 subequal segments or 2-lipped ; anticous segment wholly 
within in bud. Stamens 2, complete; filaments stout glabrous or nearly 
so; anthers exserted, linear-oblong, parallel, muticous; pollen globose, 
honeycombed ; 2 (or 3) imperfect short stamens added, with anthers 
rudimentary or small, very rarely perfecting a little pollen. Ovary 
glabrous, except the tip, with 2 (or 1) ovules in each cell; dise often 
large, cup-shaped ; style long, glabrous, rarely hairy towards the base ; 
stigmas 2, short, linear, subequal, often subconfluent. Capsule either 
ovoid, 2-seeded, or oblong-ellipsoid, 4-seeded ; seeds shaggy, usually all 
over, hairs (often in bundles) more or less elastic on applying water— 
Leaves entire, without prickles or teeth (in the Tropical African species) 
Inflorescence (when fully developed) of axillary scorpioid cymes, often 
condensed almost to a head, or shortened to few (or 1) flowers when the 
inflorescence appears like a simple spike; bracts 1 fertile, 1 sterile, aS 
simple or branched spines, or entire, or toothed, or pinnatifid leaves; 
bracteoles 0.—Somalia, Oliv. in Hook Ie. t. 1528. 
Species 120, mostly in Africa and Tropical Asia, a few in Tropical America. 
In the fully-developed axillary raceme, the lowest pair of bracts are opposite, SUP” 
porting a terminal shortly pedicelled flower without bracteoles ; from the axil of one 
bract a shoot carries two similarly opposite bracts which may support another flower 
or (not rarely) terminate the raceme. Where the raceme is many-flowered it is often 
very dense, and of each pair of bracts the sterile one is twisted on one side. In 
some common species (as in B. Prionitis) the inflorescence is so completely @ simple 
spike that the bracts have been regarded as bracteoles; and it is merely by analogy 
that they are here called bracts. Sterile inflorescences may, in most species, carry 2,3 
or 4 bracts, according as the second joint is more or less evolved. In most of the 
invariably 2-seeded species, of the subgenera Prionitis and Somalia (hitherto 
