256 CXXIIIp. URTICACE® (Rendle). [ Urera. 
much lighter than the upper, both marked with numerous cystoliths 
resembling short slender hairs ; petiole slender, generally 1-2 in. long, 
closely marked with short white cystoliths. Stipules caducous. 
Male inflorescence panicle-like, rather long-stalked, sometimes ex- 
ceeding the leaf ; flowers in clusters on the ultimate branchlets, ? lin. 
across, pedicel very short ; perianth 5-partite. Female inflorescence 
much forked, generally corymbose, denser than the male, shorter 
than the leaf, generally about 2 in. long including the peduncle (1 in. 
long) ; flowers about lin. long, shortly pedicelled, clustered on the 
short ultimate flattened branchlets, which bear stinging hairs on 
shorter or longer slender protuberances; perianth somewhat 
obliquely ovoid, sac-like, nearly or quite enveloping the ovary ; 
stigma red, rounded, projecting above the perianth. Perianth fleshy 
and orange-red in fruit, closely surrounding the achene, a little over 
1 lin. long.—U. obovata, var. longifolia, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 97. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone, Vogel, 73! 74! 114! Afzelius! Barter! 
Liberia : Mount Barclay, Bunting, 160! 
3. U. Thonneri, De Wild. & Durand in Comptes-rendus Soc. Bot. 
Belg. xxxviii. 48. A shrub climbing widely and high by means of 
adventitious roots ; stem exuding a watery sap, dingy purple, fur- 
rowed, angular, at first erect, soon dividing into spreading sarmentose 
branches which are reddish-brown when dry and armed especially 
the younger parts with short spine-like protuberances bearing stinging 
hairs, or unarmed ; internodes up to 13 in. long. Leaves fleshy, rigid, 
brittle, dark green and shining above, greyish beneath, oblong-elliptic 
to elliptic, abruptly long-acuminate, the tip narrow, obtuse, about 3 1D- 
long and 1 lin. broad, base obtuse, rounded or very slightly cordate, 
margin entire, slightly undulate, 3-nerved just above the base, with 
2 or 3 lateral nerves above on either side which are generally sub- 
opposite, sometimes alternate, ascending and curving to unite just 
beneath the margin, conspicuous on the lower face and connected by 
somewhat parallel veins, 3-5? in. long, 14-3 in. wide, upper face 
rough with dot-like cystoliths, lower face sparsely puberulous on the 
veins which are followed by numerous short linear conspicuous 
cystoliths ; petiole slender (when dry) armed like the stem or U0 
armed, puberulous, 3-2 in. long. Stipules triangular-lanceolate, 
hairy on the back and margin, } in. long, caducous. Inflorescences 
arising in the axils of the fallen leaves; male with laxly spreading 
branches, long-stalked, the branchlets armed here and. there with 
stinging hairs, 4 in. long and about half as broad; perianth gree”. 
5-partite, about 1} lin. long; female much shorter than the leaves: 
very much branched, dense, corymbose, about # in. high (Angolan 
specimens) or somewhat pyramidal, 2 in. high (Congo specimen), 
minutely puberulous, peduncle short, about } in. long; flowers 
shortly stalked, crowded, placed laterally on the short ultimate 
