400 en, AMAnANTACE.T:. 



long, broadly ovate, concave, with a spine as long as the blade, hard in 

 fruit, falling oft" with the fruiting perianth. Perianth i-l in, long, 

 glabrous and shining ; sepals subequal, ovate-oblong, finely pointed, 

 with narrow white membranous margins. Stamens 5; staminodes 

 truncate, fimbriate. Utricle oblong-cylindric, truncate at the apex, 

 thinly membranous, enclosed in the hardened perianth, smooth, brown, 

 rather more than -^ in. long, Seed subcylindric, truncate at the apex, 

 rounded at the base, brown. 



The hardened perianth containing the fruit disarticulates from the 

 rhachis above the bract, carrying away with it the spinous bracteoles 

 by the aid of which the perianth clings to the skins of cattle and the 

 like and is transported, Fl. B, I. v. 4, p, 730 ; Grab. Cat. p. 168 ; 

 Dalz. & Gibs. p. 218; Wight, Icon, t, 1777; Trim, YL Ceyl. v. 3, 

 p. 404 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 364 ; Prain, 

 Beng. PI. p. 874; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 1, p. 81.— Plowers : 

 Nov.-Jan, Verk, A'(/Mda. 



A common weed. Xon'kan : Law \ Deccan: Woodrow; Mahableshwar, Cooke \, 

 H. M. Birdwood ; Poona, Cool-e ! Sind : Woodrow. — Distrib. Througbout India ; 

 Ceylon, Tropical Asia, Africa, Australia, and America. 



Excluded Species, 



ACRTRANTHES BIDENTATA, Blume, Bijdr. (1825) p. 54.0. This plant does not 

 appear to have been found in the Bombay Presidencj'. The specimen in Herb. Kew. 

 marked " Konkan, Stocks" is from the Nilghiri liills, where it was apparently collected 

 by Mr. Foulkes. The other specimen from Stocks's herbarium has no locality assigned 

 to it. Woodrow in his list (Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 364) remarks that the 

 plant has not yet been found in the Bombay Presidency, and it is not included in 

 Dalzell & Gibson's Bombay Flora. Fl. B. I. v. 4, p. 730. 



9. CYATHULA, Lour. 



Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, entire. Flowers 

 small, in large or small bracteate and bracteolate spicate or capitate 

 fascicles with 1-2 flowers perfect and the rest imperfect ; perianth- 

 segments of imperfect flowers ultimately converted into rigid hooked 

 awns. Perianth-segments of perfect flowers 5, scarious, 1-nerved, 

 acuminate or with hooked awns. Stamens 5 ; filaments connate below 

 with intervening lacerate or 2-3-fid staminodes into a hypogynous 

 membranous cup; anthers 2-celled. Ovary obovoid, 1-celled ; ovule 

 solitary, pendulous from a long basal funicle ; style simple, filiform; 

 stigma capitellate. Fruit an ovoid membranous utricle enclosed in the 

 perianth, its apex areolate. S(>ed inverse, oblong ; testa coriaceous ; 

 embryo annular; cotyledons linear, flat; radicle erect. — Distrib. 

 Tropical xA.sia, Africa, and America ; species 10. 



1. Cyathula prostrata, Blume, Bijdr. (1825) p. 549. Stem pros- 

 trate below, thickened and rooting at the lower nodes, more or less 

 hairv, purplish ; branches erect or ascending, 1-2 ft. long. Leaves 

 l-2;i by ii-l.| i"M elliptic-rhomboid or ovate, subacute, hairy on both 

 sides, sometimes with a pink tinge beneath ; petioles very short, i uwers 

 pale-violet, in small solitary drooping clusters laxly arrane;ed in ternn'nal 

 spicate pedunculate racemes 4-6 in. long : rhachis slender, hairy ; 

 pedicels very short, about ^^^ in. long ; bracts ovale, acuminate, shortly 



