Behmeria. | CXXIIIp. URTICACES (Rendle). 285 
1. B. platyphylla, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal.60. A shrub 3-15 ft. high ; 
branches soft, glabrous or more or less strigose. Leaves membranous 
when dry, long- or short-stalked, mostly opposite, broadly ovate 
to elliptic or suborbicular, sides equal or somewhat unequal, apex 
acuminate, base cordate, rounded or blunt, margin coarsely toothed 
throughout or sometimes entire at the base, 3-9 in. long, 13-6 in. 
wide, 3-nerved, the two lateral nerves ascending to within one-third 
or one-fourth of the length from the apex, secondary nerves spreading, 
somewhat conspicuous beneath, upper face sparsely hispid with 
appressed white hairs, densely dotted with cystoliths, lower face 
glabrate or pubescent especially on the conspicuous nerves and veins, 
with generally a small glandular area on either side of the base of 
the midrib ; petiole varying very much in length, from 3-6 in., 
generally slender. Stipules triangular-acuminate, 3-5 lin. long, 
‘puberulous on the back especially on the well-developed midrib. 
Spikes usually exceeding the leaves, generally unisexual, sometimes 
androgynous, simple or, the male and androgynous, sparingly branched, 
slender, flexuous, solitary or the males sometimes fascicled in the 
leaf-axils, clusters separated, rhachis generally puberulous. Male 
clusters fewer-flowered than the female, 1-14 lin. in diam., flowers 
with very short stalks, bud depressed-glohose, 2 lin. in diam. ; peri- 
anth 4-partite, puberulous, segments acute, with a short blunt 
subapical mucro. Female clusters 1-13 lin. in diam., up to 2 lin. 
when in fruit ; bracts minute, brown, scarious, ovate or lanceolate, 
acuminate, } lin. long or less; perianth subcompressed, ellipsoid or 
ovoid, about 4 lin. long, with a short neck and 2-dentate mouth, 
puberulous ; style exceeding the perianth in length; ovary sessile. 
Fruit barely 1 lin. long, broadly ellipsoid, subcompressed with a short 
neck, puberulous.—Wedd. Monogr. Urtic. 364 (incl. var. macro- 
stachya, 367), and in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 210, 211; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. 
Ind. v. 578: De Wild. & Th. Durand in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 2me 
sér.i.50; Th. & Hél. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congol. 513; Engl. in Mildbraed, 
Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr. Exped. 1907-8, ii. 191. B. 
caudata, Poir. in Bonpl. Jard. Malm. t. 15. B. macrostachya, Wedd. 
in Ann. Sci. Na*. ¢me sér. i. 199. B. mauritiana, Wedd. l.c. 200. 
B. wightiana, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. ii. 217. Splitgerbera 
macrostachya, Wight, Icon. t. 1977. Urtica caudata, Poir. Encycl. 
lv. 640. Urtica macrostachya, Wall. Cat. 4582 partly (name 
only), 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone, Smythe, 102 Southern Nigeria: Oban, 
Talbot, 686! Fernando Po, Mann, 209! Cameroons, Preuss, 877 ! 
Mozamb. Distr. German East Africa: Usambara; Derema, Scheffler, 72! 
Amani, Herb. Amani, 435! Nyasaland: Masuka Plateau, 6500-7000 ft., 
Whyte | Nyika Plateau, Whyte, 210! Namasi, Cameron! Mount Chirad- 
zulu, Whyte! and without precise locality, Buchanan, 755! ; 
: : eh F slimit varietie the following 
A most variable species. : 7 deh greire ae acs cat cane ae is 
represent striking groups 0 
he other. . 
