Boerhaavia. | NYCTAGINEA (Cooke). 395 
1-1}, the smaller 3-3 in. long, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 
rounded at the apex, green and glabrous above, green or white 
beneath, the margins entire, often pink, more or less undulate, base 
rounded or subcordate ; petioles nearly as long as the blade, slender ; 
flowers small, shortly stalked or nearly sessile, 4-10 together in 
small umbels arranged in slender long-stalked corymbose axillary 
panicles; bracteoles small, lanceolate, acute; perianth 1-1} lin. 
long, the ovarian portion of the tube ? lin. long, contracted above 
the ovary, 5-ribbed, glandular; limb funnel-shaped, dark pink ; 
lobes very short, rounded ; stamens 1-3, slightly exserted ; stigma 
peltate ; fruit 14 lin. long. clavate-oblong rounded, broadly and 
bluntly 5-ribbed, glandular. Baker & Wright in Dyer, Fl. Trop. 
Afr. vi. i. 5. B. diffusa, Linn. Fl. Zeyl. 4, and Sp. Pl. ed. i. 3 ; 
Choisy in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 452. B. procumbens, Roxb. Fl. Ind 
ed. Carey i. 148. Talu-Dama, Rheede, Hort, Malab. vii. 105, t. 56. 
KacLanart Rearon: Transvaal; Shiluvane, Junod, 1061! Rooiplaat, Pienaars 
River, Miss Leendertz, 774! near Pienaars River Mountains, Schlechter, 4221! 
Eastern Recion: Delagoa Bay, Schlechter, 11582! between Delagoa Bay and 
Pretoria, Bolus, 9749! 
Also in Tropical Africa, Tropical and Subtropical Asia and America. 
I have in the ‘‘ Flora of the Presidency of Bombay” adopted B. diffusa as the 
type, in consequence of its priority ; it having been described by Linneus in 1747 
(Fl. Zeyl. 4), the species repens having been described in 1753 (Sp, PI. ed, i. 3), 
but as Sir J. Hooker has adopted B. repens as the type, I follow his lead. 
Heimerl (Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii, 18, 26) is apparently also of opinion 
that the type species should be diffusa, and he places under it no less than 
8 forms, many of which are elsewhere regarded as distinct species. 
The canescence of the lower surface of the leaves, which is very marked in 
some, though absent in other specimens, appears to be due to the fact that a 
very loose and when wetted easily detachable epidermis exists on the lower 
surface, with a number of raphides in the lower mesophyll. The epidermis 
becomes more or less detached, and in dry places wrinkled, the corrugations 
enclosing small portions of air. The raphides are white and in bundles, resembling 
short stiff white hairs. 
Eastern Recion: Natal; The Bluff, near Durban, 20-400 ft., Wood, 6400! 
7199! 
Considered by Heimer] (Engl. & Prantl, Phlanzenfam. iii. 1p, 26) to be a form 
of B. repens, var. diffusa ; indeed the only difference would seem to be in the fruit 
which in B, ascendens is more tapered than in the other plant. 
Also in Tropical Africa. 
