550 • UETiCACEiS (Brown). [nka. 



2-4, opposite the perianth-segments, rudimentary and scale-like in 

 the female flowers. Ovary straight, compressed, 1-celled, rudi- 

 mentary in the male flowers ; stigma terminal, sessile, not oblique, 

 formed of a dense tuft of short hairs. Fniit a compressed achene, 

 scarcely or not at all oblique. 



Annual or perennial lierbs, often creeping, not armed with stinging hairs ; 

 leaves opposite, equal or unequal in each pair, stipulate ; stii)ules connate, entire ; 

 flowers in axillary sessile clusters or in pedunculate heads, cymes or panicles. 



DiSTRiB. Species about 2S0, widely distributed throughout the warmer regions, 

 but absent from Australia and onlv one is South Africa, 



1. P. Worsdellii (N. E. Br.) ; a perennial herb up to a foot or 



perhaps more in height, with a creeping rhizome, glabrous, and 



without stinging hairs in any part; leaves opposite, stipulate; 



petioles |-2 in. long, rather slender; blades |-2J- in. long, i-l| i^i- 



broad, ovate, acute or somewhat acuminate, rounded to subcordate 



at the base, rather coarsely toothed, thin ; teeth |-2 lin. long, 1-3 



lin. broad, triangular, acute, directed forwards ; stipules connate 



into a broadly ovate obtuse 2-nerved body 3 lin. long and 2 lin. 



broadj membranous, brown, a pair at each node ; flowers mingled 



with small membranous bracts in dense axillary clusters in both 



axils of each pair of leaves, unisexual, the sexes on different plants 



or intermingled in the same cluster, each pair of clusters 5-8 lin. in 



diam. ; pedicels up to H lin. long, slender, jointed close under the 



male flowers ; perianth 3-partite and alike in both sexes, |-J lin. 



long ; segments equal and alike, deeply hooded-concave at the lower 



two-thirds, with a stout subulate blunt point on the back arisin 



just below the apex of the concavity ; stainens 3, represented by 3 



minute broadly cuneate truncate rudiments in the female flowers ; 



ovary straight, compressed, ovate, absent or very rudiuientary in 



the male flowers ; stigma sessile, not oblique, composed of a dense 



tuft of short hairs ; aclienes 1 lin. long, compressed, ovate, scarcely 



obHque, smooth, whitish-brown. 



Kalattaei Regiox: Transvaiil ; Houtbosch, 5500 ft., ScJilccJdcr, 4740! forest 

 on the Zoutpansberg Range, Worsdell I 



Also in Tropical Africa. 





V. POUZOLZIA, Gaud. 



Flowers unisexual, both sexes on the same plant. Male flowers: 

 perianth 3-5-lobed ; lobes abruptly pointed, valvate in bud ; stamens 

 3-5, opposite the perianth-segments ; ovary rudimentary, obovoid. 

 Female flotoers: perianth tubular, with an inflated basal part, flask- 

 shaped or compressed-ovoid, minutely 2-4 toothed at the mouth; 

 stamens or rudiments of them none; ovary ovoid, compressed, one- 

 celled; with 1 erect ovule ; stigma much exserted from the perianth, 



1 



