Thcsidhuju] santala(je.-e (IT ill). 201 



II. THESIDIUM, Sond. 



Floicers dioecious. 3Iale flowers : Perianth hypoeraterifoiiu ; 

 tube short, slender, continuous with the solid receptacle ; segments 

 spreading, with a bundle of Lairs arising from their base and 

 attached to the back of the anthers. Stamens 4 ; filaments short, 

 inserted at the base of the periaiith-segments ; anthers small, cells 

 parallel, dehiscing longitudinally. Style rudimentary or more often 

 absent. Female Jloicers : receptacle ovoid, adnate to the ovary. 

 Perianth-tube very shortly cam])anulate or scarcely evident; seg- 

 ments 4, rarely 5. Disc usually obscui-e, Staminodes rarely present. 

 Ovary inferior ; style short ; stigma obscurely 2-3-lobed ; ovules^ 2-3, 

 pendulous from the apex of a central straight or folded filiform 

 placenta. Fruit a nut as in Thesium with a fleshy basal ring, small, 

 globose or ovoid, crowned by the persistent perianth, 5-ribbed and 

 conspicuously reticulate, sometimes pitted ; endocarp crustaceous. 

 Embryo terete in the centre of fleshy albumen, often oblique. 



Low shrublets or herbs, much-branched, semiparasitic ; leaves alternate, often 

 very small or squamiform, rigid ; flowers very smallj subsessile, solitary or in 2-3- 

 nowered cynniles in the axils of bracts, arranged in slender terminal spikes ; 

 bracts and bracteoles in the male plants usually small, in the female often 

 conspicuous, frequently hispid or scabridulous. 



DiSTRiB. Species 7 or S, all South African. 



Male and female plants similar. Bracts and bracteoles 

 scale-like, fleshy ; 

 Plants very slender ; branches delicate, flexuous, pros- 

 trate or erect ; flowers distant ; bracts very small ; 

 fruit subsessile (1) exocarpaeoides. 



Plants fairly stout ; branches flexuous, prostrate ; 

 flowers distant ; bracts keeled, broadly ovate- 

 lanceolate, navicular; fruit stipitate (2) Thunbergii. 



Plants stout ; branches erect, intricate, crowded ; flowers 

 crowded ; bracts with prominent apical keel- wing ; 

 fruit subsessile (3) fragile. 



Male and female plants dissimilar. Male plants with 



subulate or ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous bracts. 



Female plants with conspicuous leafy bracts : 

 ^lale plants r 



Stems and bracts conspicuously hairy; bracts 

 crowded, imbricate, curved, longer than the usually 

 solitary flowers (4) MrtunL 



Stems and bracts scabridulous or subglabrous ; bracts 

 usually spreading : 

 Bracts shorter than or subequal to flowers, curved ; 



plants slender, subglabrous. annual (5) minus. 



- Bracts twice as long as flowers, spreading ; woody 



subsliruba : 

 Bracts and stem-ribs verruculose or subsca- 



bridulous ; bracts keeled ; leaves 2-4 lin. long (6) fniticulosum. 



