256 XCVII. ACANTHACEE (CLARKE). | Dicliptera. 
58. DICLIPTERA, Juss.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 1120. 
Sepals 5, equal, small, linear, pubescent, hardly united at the base. 
Corolla rose-purple to white, deeply 2-lipped; tube not or slightly 
inflated ; anticous lip 3-fid, without in the bud; posticous lip entire or 
emarginate. Stamens 2; anther-cells 2, one above the other, muticous ; 
pollen ellipsoid, smooth, with 3 (or 2) bands and stopples. Ovules 2 in 
each cell; style with 2 subequal very short lobes. Capsule small, 
ovoid, sessile or very shortly compressed, 4- or 2-seeded; placente 
arising elastically from the base of the capsule-valves; seeds discoid, 
dotted with glochidiate tubercles, sometimes elongate, sometimes short- 
ened to warts or obsolete-—Herbs. Leaves entire. Spikelets 2~1- 
(rarely 3-) flowered, in heads or scattered; bracts to the two flowers 
subopposite, enclosing the calyx, from linear to ovate; bracteoles 2 to 
each flower, lanceolate, shorter than the bract, longer than the calyx. 
Species 60; in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. 
This genus is grounded on the elastically rising placente; and in much of the 
material without ripe capsules, the plants are put in Dicliptera by inference. When 
Bentham (in Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. 1121) states the bracts and sepals to be 
sometimes united, it must be recollected that many of the specimens which passed 
through his hands as Dicliptera were really Hypoestes, in which genus the structure 
of the spikelet is exactly as that of Dicliptera. 
*Bracts to the spikelet linear or narrow-lanceolate, not 
widened upwards. 
Branches with prickles on the angles 
Branches without prickles, hairy . . 
Branches without prickles, glabrous . . 
**Bracts to the spikelet wider, ovate or obovate or 
obovate-lanceolate, 
Spikelets solitary or laxly approximated. 
D. aculeata. 
D. Carvalho. 
D, lingulata. 
wn 
Axillary peduncles long ; pedicels mostly long 4, D, maculata. 
Cymes short, forming axillary clusters 5. D. laxata. 
Spikelets alternate on a zigzag spike 6. D. alternans. 
Spikelets densely clustered in ovoid heads. 
Bracts to the spikelet broad, ovate or round obovate. . 
Corolla exceeding 1 in. in length . . . 7. D. mossambicensis. 
Corolla about 3 in. Jong . . . . 8. D. Llliotii. 
Bracts to the spikelet oblong or lanceolate, wider at 
the top, 
Heads of spikelets many axillary. 
Bracts of spikelets green, hairy. 
Leaves narrowed at the base. 
Heads of spikelets very dense. . . 9. D, micranthes. 
Heads of spikelets loose . . . . 10. D. umbellata. 
Leaves cordate . . . ; _ LL. D. Welwitschii. 
Bracts glabrescent . . . . . 12. D. angolensis. 
Bracts brown, more or less purplish . . 18, D. colorata. 
Bracts whitish, green-nerved . . . 14. D. Leonotis. 
Heads of spikelets mostly peduncled, appearing 
terminal. 
Leaves elliptic ; heads small . . . 15. D. nilotica. 
Leaves narrow-oblong ; heads in an oblong 
spike . . . . . . . 16. D, Melleri. 
