Pilea.] CXXIIIp. URTICACEA (Rendle), 269 
generally in pairs in the leaf-axils, rather shortly stalked, spreading, 
up to 2 in. long including the peduncle (up to 3 in.), the male larger 
than the female which do not exceed the petiole of the larger leaf. 
Male flowers in dense subglobular clusters on the branchlets, about 
é in. in diam., subsessile (pedicel shorter than the flower), bud 
giobular, 4 lin. in diam., perianth 2-partite, segments broadly con- 
cave with a short blunt apical mucro; stamens 2. Female flowers 
m smaller clusters than the male, barely exceeding 1 lin. in diam. ; 
median segment oblong, shortly and somewhat acutely hooded, half 
as long again as the ovate lateral segments, and not equalling the 
smooth broadly ovate achene which is about 4 lin. long. —Henriques 
in Bolet. Soc. Brot. x. 163. 
Lower Guinea. Island of St. Thomas, Mann, 1063! Moller & Quintas! 
Pilea microphylla, Liebm, (P. muscosa, LindI.), a common tropical American 
Species, which has been introduced into several localities in India and China, has 
been sent from Zanzibar by R. H. Lyne. 
2. P. ceratomera, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 132. Dicecious or 
Sometimes monoecious. Stem creeping and rooting below, then 
erect, generally simple, or with erect branches from the lower nodes, 
6 in. to 2 ft. high, 1-2 lin. thick, lower nodes becoming bare, glabrous. 
Leaves of a pair nearly equal, broadly ovate, acuminate, base very 
obtuse to almost truncate, sometimes rounded, margin crenate- 
Serrate above the base which is 3-nerved, the two side nerves running 
to about the middle, 1-2 in. long, 3-14 in. wide, membranous when 
dry, glabrous or with scattered appressed white hairs on the veins 
beneath, with generally numerous inconspicuous fusiform cystoliths 
on both faces ; petiole slender, 4-24 in. long, generally shorter but 
Sometimes longer than the blade. Stipules ovate-elliptic, apex 
tounded, }-4 in. long, brown and scarious when dry, sometimes lasting 
as long as or rarely longer than the leaf. Inflorescences forming a 
dense'sessile head at the upper nodes, the pair at each node becoming 
confluent, much shorter than the petioles, 1-sexual or the upper 
Sometimes 2-sexual. Male flower about 1 lin. long, pedicel nearly 
as long ; perianth 3-partite, segments elliptic-obovate with a horn- 
like process beneath the short bluntly ligulate apex about 4 lin. long. 
emale flower with 3 subequal broadly ovate-elliptic segments a 
little shorter than the achene and bearing a subapical process as in 
the male { lin. or less in length ; staminodes bluntly ovate, varying in 
length. ‘Achene compressed-ovate, with narrowly winged margin, 
1 lin. long, bearing when ripe minute slender stiff transparent cuti- 
cular processes, especially on the margin.—Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 
163. P. macrodonta, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xx. 266. 
P. n. sp., Henriques, l.c. ie waked 
i apa & nce Peak, ., Mann, 626! ame- 
a ee E hesar ear T0000 ft., Mann, 2011! Johnston, 66! Mild- 
braed, 3437; Buea, Preuss, 957 ! 
