Droguetia. | CXXIIIp. URTICACEH (Rendle). 305 
branches, sparsely hispidulous above, glabrate below. Leaves 
alternate, ovate, acute, base blunt, entire, margin above base crenate- 
serrate, # to barely 1 in. long, $-3 in. wide, 3-nerved, membranous, 
green on both faces but paler beneath, upper face scabrid with the 
dotted cystoliths and sparsely hispid, lower face hispid on the slender 
nerves ; petiole very slender, half the length of the blade or less, 
hispidulous. Stipules ovate-acuminate, scarious, white with a green 
hispidulous midvein, about 1 lin. long. Inflorescence axillary, com- 
prising a pair of androgynous involucres above each stipule and two 
younger female dichasia lateral at the base of the undeveloped 
axillary shoot ; androgynous involucre becoming ventricose, with 
toothed margin, about 1 lin. long in fruit, puberulous on outside, 
containing 3 male and 2 female flowers. Female involucre, as in 
D. iners, 1-flowered. Male flower shortly stalked, mid-lobe of 
perianth shortly acute. Achene black, not shining, about $ lin. long. 
eae Land, Uganda: Mau, shady wood at 7000-8000 ft., Scott Hllot, 
5799 ! 
17. AUSTRALINA, Gaud. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 394. 
Flowers moncecious, in clusters in the leaf-axils, without an 
involucre. Male flowers few to many, sessile or shortly stalked ; 
perianth club-shaped in bud, after opening tubular below with a 
broad outer acuminate lobe, or ultimately splitting almost to the 
base. Stamen 1. Ovary-rudiment absent. Female flowers few, 
sessile; perianth sac-like enveloping the ovary, with contracted 
minutely toothed mouth, or absent. Ovary straight ; stigma fili- 
form or narrow-linear ; ovule erect from the base. Achene included 
in the membranous or slightly fleshy perianth, or naked ; pericarp 
thin. Seed conforming to the pericarp, testa thin; albumen very 
scanty ;_ cotyledons broadly elliptic—Diffuse annual or perennial 
herbs. Leaves alternate or opposite, stalked, toothed ; stipules 
lateral, free or sometimes joined below, scarious. Male flower- 
clusters sessile or stalked, female sessile. 
Species 6, in Australia, New Zealand and South and Tropical Africa. 
Leaves opposite ... : 1. A. flaccida. 
Leaves alternate ... Whe ie es ‘és we 2. A, acuminata. 
1. A. flaccida, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 235°°. A weak herb 
With slender elongated creeping stems up to 1 ft. or even 3 ft. in 
length, hirtellous as are the shorter (4-8 in. long) ascending branches ; 
ower internodes 3 to 14 in. long, the few uppermost short, the leaves 
being ageregated at the end of the shoot. Leaves opposite, very 
shortly stalked, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, extreme apex 
lunt, base rounded to blunt, margin above base crenate-serrate, 
17-1} in. long, 3-7 lin. wide, or even smaller on the branchlets, 
FL. TROP. AFR. VI. SECT. Il. x 
