276 CXXIIIp. URTICACEZ (Rendle). | Lecanthus. 
8. LECANTHUS, Wedd. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ui. 385. 
Flowers monoecious or dicecious. Male flower: Perianth 4-5- 
partite, segments concave, gibbous below the hooded apex. Stamens 
4-5; ovary rudiment small. Female flowers : Perianth 3-4-par- 
tite, segments unequal, persistent. Staminodes opposite the perianth- 
segments, small, scale-like. Ovary straight, ovule erect from the 
base of the chamber. Stigma sessile, penicillate. Achene straight, 
ovate, somewhat compressed, invested with the persistent perianth- 
segments. Seed-coat membranous, conforming to the pericarp ; 
albumen very scanty; cotyledons elliptic——Annual or perennial 
herbs with the habit of Pilea. Leaves opposite, stalked, those of a 
pair unequal, serrate, 3-nerved. Stipules scarious, connate into one, 
intrapetiolar. Flowers on stalked discoid or turbinate receptacles 
which are solitary in the leaf-axils; male and female flowers on 
separate plants or more rarely mixed in the same receptacle ; flowers 
generally stalked. Long-stalked sterile flowers may occur in the 
female receptacles. 
Species 2; one in tropical Asia and Africa, one in the Society Islands. 
1. L. peduncularis, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 164. A delicate 
herb, varying in African specimens from a little over an inch to 10 in. 
in height. Stems one to several, erect from a creeping rooting base, 
simple or branched, succulent, glabrous, from 4-1} lin. thick, leafy 
except at the lower nodes, leaves increasing in size in the upper part. 
Leaves thinly papery when dry, ovate to elliptic-ovate, apex acute 
to acuminate, base blunt to cuneate, sometimes unequal, margin 
serrate, teeth usually large, the smaller lower leaves rarely neatly oF 
quite entire, varying very much in size, from } in. to 2# in. long, 
4-1} in. wide, glabrous except for a few scattered sharp-pointed 
white hairs on the upper face, both faces with numerous linear cysto- 
liths ; nerves more conspicuous on the lower face ; the lateral pair 
failing in the upper part of the leaf; petioles slender, glabrous; 
varying greatly in length, from 1 lin. to 1} in. long, those of a pal 
unequal. United stipules scarious, generally persistent, broadly 
elliptic, a little over 1 lin. long in the larger leaves. Receptacles 
on slender stalks ; male generally very small, turbinate and shortly 
stalked. Female varying greatly in size, generally from 1-4 lin. in 
diam. in African specimens ; margin of disc with bluntly rounded 
overlapping lobes, back of disc with linear cystoliths ; peduncle 
filiform, }-1 in. long; perianth deeply divided into 3 to 4 unequal 
segments, =-} lin. long, which are clavate with a more or less hoode 
apex ; in the outer series of flowers the outermost perianth-segment 
is often conspicuously larger, with a more prominent hood than the 
yemaining 2 or 3; where 4 segments are present the one opposite 
the larger is the smallest. Achene chestnut-brown, narrowly ovo! 
