ld 
Mechowia.| CVI. AMARANTACEA (BAKER AND CLARKE). 37 
reddish. Bracteoles 2, oblong, about in. long. Perianth-segments 4 in. 
long.—Schinz in Eng). Jahrb. xxi. 186; Durand & De Wild. in Comptes- 
rendus Soc. Bot. Belg. xxxvi. 85; Gilg in Baum, Kunene-Samb. 
Exped. 231, 433, 469. 
Lower Guinea. Angola: Longa River, 4000 ft., Baum, 634! 
South Central. Congo Free State: Mpweto, Descamps. - 
7. ASRVA, Forsk.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen, PI. iii. 34. 
Flowers polygamous, monecious or subdicecious, in dense cylindric 
or ovoid spikes. Bracts and perianth white or tawny, thin, often pointed, 
but very soft, not spinous. Perianth usually of 5 segments, with much 
fine soft hair. Stamens 5; filaments linear, on the staminal tube, 
with 5 interposed staminodes (or the tube rudimentary and stamens 
1-2 only in &. brachiata).; anthers 2-celled. Ovary ovoid, with 1 ovule 
on a basal funicle ; style shorter than the ovary, branches 2, oblong or 
very short. Utricle thin; seed ovoid, flattened; embryo annular.—Herbs 
or small shrubs, hairy. Leaves alternate, entire, flat. Spikes axillary, 
or running into terminal leafless panicles. 
Species 10—in the warmer parts of Africa and Asia. 
The name of this genus has been changed lately to Uretia by O. Kuntze, and 
then to Ouret, Adans., by Hiern; then back again to 4rva by Torre and Harms in 
accordance with the Berlin rule of 50 years’ user. 
Stem tomentose with stellate hair. Inflorescence ter- 
minal, leafless at the top. 
Leaves flat, often 2 in. long ‘ . ; F . 1. 4. tomentosa. 
Leaves $ in. long, brown-yellow, recurved . : . 2. 4. Ruspolii. 
Stem without stellate hairs, villous or glabrate. 
Upper branches of stem obliquely erect, elongate ; 
spikes in leafless panicles terminal on these. . 8. 4. leucura. 
Spikes axillary, or on very short axillary branches ; 
stamens 5. 
Stem ending in a leafy linear condensed panicle . 4. 4. lanata. 
Stem ending in a leafless linear panicle . : . 4 4. lanata, 
var. oblongata. 
Spikes axillary; stamens 1-2 . ‘ : ; . 5. 4. brachiata. 
1, 2S. tomentosa, Mors’. Fl. Lgypt.-Arab. cxxii. and 170. Stem 
suberect, 2-4 ft. high, branched, tomentose with stellate and branched 
hairs. Leaves alternate, 4 by 1 in., woolly when young, often in age 
glabrate. Spikes of flowers cylindric, 2 by } in., dense, collected in 
terminal leafless panicles. Flowers } in. long. Bracts and perianth- 
segments triangular at the tip, hardly mucronate, very soft; hairs of 
numerous short cells, minutely papillose. Style-branches oblong, some- 
times nearly as long as the style.—. ewgyptiaca, Gmel. Syst. Nat. 1026. 
4. incana, Mart. in Nova Acta Nat. Cur. xiii. (1826), 291. &. javaniea, 
Wight, Ic. t. 876; Hook. Niger Fl. 492; Hook.f, Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 727; 
Boiss. Fl. Orient. iv. 992; A.Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. ii. 214; Moquin in 
DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 299, partly ; Garcke in Peters, Reise Mossamb, Bot. 
