484 poDosTEMACEA: ( Hill.) | Spherothylac. 
green. Drege in Linnea, xx. 244 ; Tulasne in Ann. Sci. Nat. 3™° sér. 
xi. 105; Monogr. 161; Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvii. 78. 
Eastern Recion : Tembuland ; Umtata River, under 1000 ft., Drége! 
wt IIT, HYDROSTACHYS, Thouars. 
Flowers diwcious. Perianth none. Malé: Stamen_ solitary ; 
filament very short; anther oblong, 2-celled. Female: Ovary 
oblong, l-celled; placentas 2, parietal. Styles 2, long, filiform, 
connate in the lower half. Capsule oblong, seated in the hollow 
of a concave accrescent bract, the apex of which is often reflexed, 
2-valved. Seeds many to each placenta. 
Stem short, tuberous; leaves large, pinnately branched, usually bearing pro- 
tuberances on the petiole and rhachis ; spikes simple, tufted, peduncled, much 
resembling the fruiting spikes of Plantayo major, Linn., each flower seated in the 
axil of a persistent bract. 
Bote Species about 15, chiefly in the Mascarene Islands, three in Tropical 
rica. 
1. H. natalensis (Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvii. 88); leaves 4-14 
in. long. 3-4-pinnatisect ; rhachis compressed above the base and 
flattened, tapering towards the apex, about 1 lin. broad, more or 
less densely covered with imbricate subulate or ovate acute pro- 
tuberances —1 lin. long ; pinne subopposite, numerous, spreading, 
lanceolate, brush-like, 1-1} in. long, densely covered with subulate 
acute protuberances; pinnules 1-1} lin. long, finely divided into 
numerous irregular linear lacinule ; female spikes 5-12 in. long, 
simple, crowded above with flowers, flowering portion 25-6 in. long ; 
peduncles stout, 2-2} in. in diam., naked below ; bracts boat- 
shaped, obovate, 14 lin. long, rounded above, margins membranous ; 
nerves 3-5, the median one decurrent into the axis; capsule ovate- 
oblong, about 1 lin. long, naked at the base ; male spikes 5-10 in. 
long, flowering portion cone-like, }—24 in. long ; peduncles simple or 
branching below, rugose or covered with minute protuberances ; 
bracts crowded, imbricate, orbicular-ovate, obtuse or subacute, 
about | lin. in diam., transversely rugose on the back, with thickened 
margin ; anther-cells separated. 
_ Eastern Rearon: Natal; Umgeni Falls, Sanderson ! Mudd | Schlechter, 3314! 
in the river at Ulwimbu, 2500 ft., Sutherland! on stones in Umvoti River, Wood, 
292! and in MacOwan & Bolus, Herb, Norm. Austr.-Afr. 1015 | Reynolds, 1643 ! 
rapids in mountain streams, McKen, 13! 
