558 URTiCACEiE (Brown). [Dror/uctia. 



VIII. DROGUETIA, Gaud. 



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Apparent jloicers of two kinds ; one consisting of a hemispherical 

 shortly toothed involucre containing (and shorter than) 4-8 male 

 and 1-3 female flowers embedded in and clinging to densely matted 

 wool ; the other smaller, ovoid, with a flaisk-shaped involucre, 4- 

 toothed at its contracted mouth, containing 1 female flower, M 



fi 



e 



perianth bract-like, of one segment, 



tubular at the base, open and flattish or concave above, entire ; 

 stamen 1 ; anther inflexed in bud. Female flower consisting of a 

 compressed- ovoid or elliptic 1 -celled ovary terminating in a filiform 

 pubescent stigma, without a perianth or stamens, when 2 or more 

 female flowers are present in a bisexual involucre they are sometimes 

 adherent or fused into one central mass ; ovule solitary, erect, basal. 

 Aclienc compressed-ovoid or compressed-ellipsoid, keeled, with a 

 crustaceous pericarp. 



Perennial erect or prostrate herbs ; leaves opposite or alternate, stipulate ; 

 nvolucres axillary or in terminal spikes, sessile or subsessile, in pairs, solitary or 

 clusteredj resembling flowers. 



DiS'iRiB. Species about 12, in South and Tropical Africa, the Mascarene 

 Islands and India. 



The involucre of this genus is difficult to distinguish from the perianths of the 

 male flowers which project much beyond it, because it clings by means of very 

 minute hooked hairs closely to the backs of the perianths and the wool in which 

 they are invested, so that the perianths may easily be mistaken for lobes of the 

 involutTe. 



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Main stems prostrate, rooting ; leaves (including the 



petioles) ^-1 J in. long (1) Thunbergii. 



Maiu stems erect, 1-3 ft. high ; leaves (including the 

 petioles) ^-5 in. long : 

 Leaves with 4^6 teeth on each side and the terminal 



r 



tooth not longer than broad, under surface green . . . (2) urticaefolia. 



Leaves with 5-12 teeth on each side : 



Under surface of the leaf dull purplish ; terminal 

 tooth twice or more than twice as long as 

 broad 



#•* •«■ »«■ B«# ••■ 



... (4) ambigua. 



Under surface of the leaf green : 



Terminal tooth 2-3 times as long as broad ... (3) Woodii. 



Terminal tooth not or scarcely longer than broad (5) Burchellii. 



1. D. Thunbergii (X. E. Br. in Kew Bulletin, 1913, 80); a 



perennial herb, with slender creeping and rooting stems and 

 branches ^-U lin. thick, glabrous or thinly adpressed-pubescent on 

 the same plant ; leaves opposite ; petiole 1-4 lin. long, slender ; 

 blade 3-12 lin. long, 2-7 lin. broad, ovate, acute or acuminate; 

 rounded or obtusely cuneate at the base, crenate or serrate-crenate 

 on the margins, usually thinly adpressed-pubescent above and 



1 



