284 OXXIIIp. URTICACEH (Rendle). | Procris, 
solitary or fascicled in the lower leaf-axils or at the bare nodes ; 
peduncle filiform, up to 3 in. long; pedicel shorter than the flower. 
Perianth in bud depressed-globose, about 2 lin. long, divided for 
three-quarters of its length, 2 outer segments narrower than the 
inner, all elliptic, concave, rounded above, with a very short dorsal 
mucro below the apex. Stamens attached above the base. Rudi- 
ment of ovary minute. Female receptacles generally 3-4-fascicled 
at the lower leafy and naked nodes, head spherical to transversely 
ellipsoid, in fruit 2-4 lin. broad; peduncles stout, 1-2 lin. long. 
Achenes crowded, brown, ovoid, somewhat compressed, generally 
subacute, about 3 lin. long, surrounded at the base by the small 
imbricate rotund perianth-leaves which are indistinguishable from 
the bracteoles.—P. levigata, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 192, partly ; 
not of Bl. Bijdr. 508; Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1295; Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. 
v. 575.  Elatostema levigatum, Hassk. Cat. Hort. Bogor. 79. £. 
wightianum, Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. 4me sér. i. 188 (name only). 
Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Mann, 566! Cameroons: Buea, Preuss, 
963! Lolodorf, Zenker, 1386 ! 
Nile Land. Uganda: Mabira Forest at 4000 ft., Dawe, 165! 
Lower Guinea. Princes Island, Barter, 2028! Angola, Curror, 126! 
Mozamb. Distr. German East Africa: Amani, Herb. Amani, 431! 
Also in India, Ceylon, Malaya, and the Mascarene Islands. 
11. BEHMERIA, Jacq. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 387. 
Flowers moneecious or dicecious, in globose clusters. Male: Peri- 
anth 4-lobed or 4-partite, rarely 3- or 5-partite, lobes or segments 
membranous, valvate, sometimes with a short appendage beneath 
the apex. Stamens as many as the perianth-segments. Ovary 
rudiment small. Female: Perianth tubular, compressed or ventri- 
cose, generally contracted at the mouth and 2—4-toothed, persistent 
in fruit. Ovary enveloped by the perianth, and sometimes adhering 
to it, sessile or stalked ; stigma apical, continuous with the ovary: 
long, very slender, hairy on one side, persistent ; ovule erect from 
the base. Achene enclosed by the persistent perianth and some- 
times adnate to it; pericarp thinly crustaceous. Seed conforming 
to the pericarp; testa thin; albumen varying in quantity ; cotyle- 
dons elliptic.—Small trees, shrubs or undershrubs, the younger 
portions more or less softly hairy. Leaves opposite or alternate, 
stalked, equal-sided or unequal-sided, toothed, 3-nerved ; cystoliths 
dot-like. Stipules axillary, generally free or joined only at the 
base, deciduous. Flower-clusters generally unisexual, sessile at the 
nodes or distributed on the rhachis of a spike or on the branches 
of a panicle-like cyme. Bracts small, scarious. 
Species more than 50, natives of warmer regions ; mostly tropical. 
