182 A FLORA OF MANILA 
globose or clavate. Female flowers: Calyx cupular, 4-lobed, or sepals 4, 
equal or very unequal. Ovary oblique; style ovoid or linear. Achene 
oblique, compressed, exserted, membranaceous. (In honor of J. F. Fleury, 
a French botanist.) - 
Species 8, of wide tropical distribution, 2 in the Philippines. 
1. F. INTERRUPTA (L.) Gaudich. Lipang-aso, Lipang-castila (Tag.). 
An erect, somewhat branched or simple, rather stout, annual herb 0.4 to 
1.3 m high, the stems green, succulent, the vegetative parts with scattered, 
somewhat stinging, spreading hairs. Leaves ovate, acuminate, crenate or 
serrate, base broad, rounded or faintly cordate, 5 to 15 cm long, with 
scattered -hairs on both surfaces, the petioles long. Inflorescence narrow, 
axillary, slender, up to 20 cm in length, of numerous, short, paniculately 
arranged cymes. Flowers crowded, greenish, small, intermixed with 
numerous pedicels of fallen flowers, the perianth of the pistillate ones 1 
to 1.5 mm long; achenes straw-colored, compressed, 1.5 to 1.8 mm long. 
Occasional in waste places, scattered, fi. all the year, but mostly in the 
rainy season, almost certainly introduced; widely distributed in the Phil- 
ippines. India to China, Malaya, and Polynesia. 
5. PILEA Lindley 
Herbs, the leaves opposite, in equal or unequal pairs, entire or serrate, 
usually 3-nerved, the stipules connate into an intra-petiolar one. Flowers 
monoecious or dioecious, in axillary short- or long-peduncled, dense or 
dichotomously branched cymes. Male. flowers: Sepals 2 to 4, free or 
connate at the base, often swollen or spurred at the back. Stamens 2 to 4. 
Rudimentary ovary conic or oblong. Female flowers: Sepals 3, rarely 4, 
very small, unequal, the dorsal one longest and sometimes swollen or 
hooded. Staminodes minute or none. Ovary straight; stigma sessile, 
penicillate. Achene ovoid or oblong, compressed, membranaceous or crus- 
taceous. (Latin “felt cap” from a flower character in the original species.) 
Species 170 or more, of wide tropical distribution, 13 in the Philippines, 
a single introduced species in our area. 
1. P. MICROPHYLLA (L.) Liebm. (P. muscosa Lindl). Gunpowder Plant. 
An erect or ascending, simple, glabrous, annual, somewhat succulent, 
usually gregarious herb 10 cm high or less, stems slender, green or tinged 
with purple, angular. Leaves 2-ranked, petioled, the blades green, sub- 
elliptic, 2 to 5 mm long. Flowers in small, congested, subcapitate, nearly 
‘sessile, axillary cymes, the individual flowers greenish or tinged with red, 
less than 1 mm long. 
Abundant on damp walls, etc., fl. throughout the year, but mostly in the 
rainy season; widely distributed in the Philippines. A native of South 
America, now introduced in various other tropical countries. 
The common English name is derived from the fact that a clowd of pollen 
is discharged when the plant is shaken. 
6. ELATOSTEMA Forster 
Prostrate or erect, simple or branched herbs, sometimes suffrutescent. 
Leaves alternate, or a minute one often opposite the normal ones, distichous, 
sessile or subsessile, usually oblique or unequal-sided, mostly 3-nerved at 
the base or above it. Flowers very small, monoecious or dioecious, crowded 
on sessile or peduncled, axillary, unisexual, involucrate receptacles, the 
bracts rounded or oblong, the outer ones sometimes spurred. Female 
