Psilotrichum.] AMARANTACE& (Cooke and Wright). 425 
heads, solitary and axillary or paniculately arranged ; flowers white or greenish ; 
bracts or bracteoies small, hyaline. 
Disrrip. Species about 20 (some imperfectly known), chiefly in ‘Tropical Asia 
and Africa, a few in the Sandwich Islands. 
1. P. africanum (Oliv. in Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1542); a branched 
undershrub ; branches puberulous or glabrous, terete ; leaves oppo- 
site, ovate or ovate-elliptic, #-2 in. long, 4-1 in. wide, acute, usually 
cuneate at the base, with scattered hairs on both surfaces or 
glabrous ; petiole 2-3 lin. long, pubescent; spikes up to 4 lin. 
long, of few clusters, axillary and terminal on short peduncles ; 
bracts ovate, acuminate, 1 lin. long, densely silky ; bracteoles 2, 
broadly ovate, concave, glabrous, midrib stout and excurrent ; 
perianth-segments about 2 lin. long, the 2 outer slightly larger 
than the inner, lanceolate, silky outside ; staminal cup } lin. long; — 
filaments subulate, 1 lin. long; anthers subglobose ; ovary oblong, 
tapering into a short subulate style ; stigma capitate. Oliv. in 
Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Bot. ii. 348; Schinz in Engl. & Prantl, 
Pflanzenfam. iii. 1a, 111 and 112, fig. 65, and in Engl. Pfl. Ost- 
Afr. 0.173; OC. B. Cl. in Dyer, Fl. Trop. Afr. vi. i. 58. 
Eastern Recron : Natal, Gerrard, 594! Zululand ; Indulendi, 1000-2000 tt. ; 
i hoa 3956! Portuguese East Africa; Ressano Garcia, 1000 ft., Schlechter, 
Also in Tropical Africa, 
XIII. BRVA, Forsk. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, polygamous or dicecious, bracteate and 
2-bracteolate, small, in dense cylindric terminal and axillary 
solitary or paniculate spikes. Perianth usually of 5 segments, not 
indurated at the base ; segments equal or the 3 interior narrower, 
oblong or lanceolate, all or the 3 interior only softly woolly. 
Stamens usually 5; filaments usually unequal, linear-subulate, 
united at the base into a cup with interposed staminodes ; anthers 
2-celled. Ovary 1-celled ; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex 
of an elongate funicle ; style short or long ; stigmas 2 or stigma 
capitellate. Uztricle enclosed in the perianth, membranous. Seed 
ovoid or reniform, compressed ; testa thinly coriaceous ; embryo 
peripheric, surrounding farinaceous albumen ; radicle superior. 
Wooliy herbs or undershrubs ; leaves usually alternate, entire, flat; flowers 
minute, white or ferruginous. : 
Distrip. Species 10, in the warmer parts of Asia and Africa. 
Spikes running out into terminal leafless panicles ; 
perianth up to 1} lin. long... ee oi .»» (1) leucura. 
Spikes not running out into terminal panicles ; perianth 
less than 1 lin. long ‘ eas sis ... (2) lanata. 
