22 ACANTHACEE (Olarke). [ Petalidiwm. 
* WESTERN ReEaGion: Great Namaqualand; between Brashwater and Sunfarar, 
and on a table mountain near Bethany, Schinz, 21! 
Also in Damaraland. 
2. P. oblongifolium (C. B. Clarke); leaves 1 by 1-1 in.; petioles 
+ in. ; bracteoles $ by 4 in., finally white-searious with reticulating 
purple veins; ealyx-teeth 1-1 in. long, unequal, glandular-hairy ; 
corolla, stamens, anthers, pollen and pistil, as of P. linifolium. 
KALAHARI REGion: Transvaal; Piet Potgeiters Rust, 4300 ft., Schlechter, 
4773! 
IX. BLEPHARIS, Juss. 
Bract large, ovate, acute or lanceolate, strongly nerved, often spine- 
toothed ; bracteoles 2, narrow, or (in B. boerhaaviefolia) 0. Calyx 
4-partite nearly to the base; anticous segment of 2 sepals united 
nearly to the tip; posticous sepal longer, ovate at the base, oblong above, 
3-nerved ; 2 inner sepals much shorter and narrower. Corolla short- 
tubed ; limb blue or white, throat often yellow, or according to Nees 
in B. capensis the corolla wholly yellow ; posticous lip 0, represented by 
a horny rim ; anticous lip nearly flat obovate with 3-5 rounded lobes. 
Stamens 4, didynamous; anthers 1-celled, oblong, with a fringe of 
long white hairs along the slit ; 2 anticous filaments 2-fid near the 
top, one braneh a short-oblong process or nearly obsolete, the other 
carrying the anther; pollen ellipsoid, smooth, with 3 longitudinal 
chinks (cf. Lindau in Engl. Jahrb. xviii. t. 1, fig. 36). Ovary with 
2 (or 1) ovules in each cell; style-branches 2, subequal, linear- 
lanceolate ; at the apex of the ovary on the posticous face are 
2 hollows filled with glands. Capsule ellipsoid, flattened, woody, 
shining-brown, 2- (seldom 4-) seeded. Seeds much flattened, covered 
with rope-like hair-bundles, which on applying water unroll into 
very long 1-celled hairs each furnished with a spiral band within. 
Weedy undershrubs, often s 
) r pinous, or with spine-toothed leaves; leaves of the 
main stem approximated frequently in fours; the lower pair in each false whorl 
often smaller and sometimes reduced to compound spines ; flowers in spikes, which 
are sometimes cylindric strobilate with imbricate bracts, sometimes ovoid, few- 
flowered and very loose; the spikes in spp. 1-4, 13-15, are reduced having all the 
bracts (except the uppermost) empty, and appear as single flowers closely 
enclosed by 4-8 bracts. 
Species 50, mostly African ; a few extending through Arabia and the Orient 
Region to India. 
Section 1. Leaves entire, not spine-toothed on the margins except B. 
linariefolia in which the leaves have occasionally a few teeth). NT EE 
Spikes small, reduced, with the terminal bract 
alone bearing a flower, axillary, mostly solitary ; 
corolla 4-2 in. long: 
Bracteoles 0 ees ie as He .. (1) boerhaavieefolia. 
Bracteoles present ; 
Bracts spine-toothed : 
Leaves slightly hairy or glabrescent (2) molluginifolia, 
Leaves scabrous with geveral-celled 
se Ge a a 
Bracts without spinous teeth or» = eve (4) innocna, 
