CXVI. URTICACE-E. 633 



beads armed with slinging hairs. Perianth simple. Male flowers : 

 ISepals 4-5, valvate. Petals 0. Stamens 4-5, inflexed in bud ; filaments 

 free. Pistillode globose or cup-shaped. Female flowebs : Perianth 

 tubular, ventrico^e, 2-3-tootbed, at length split on one side, spatha- 

 ceous. Ovary straight ; ovule solitary, erect ; stigma subulate, papillose. 

 Fruit a broad compressed acbene with tbickish pericarp ; albuuien 

 scanty or 0; cotyledons broad. — Distrib. Tropical Asia and Africa; 

 species 7. 



1. Girardinia zeylanica, Decaisne, in Jacq. Voi/. (1844) p. 152. 

 A tall i"obust, perenuial-rooted herb, 4-6 ft. high, closely armed with 

 slender stinging hairs ; stem and branches furrowed. Leaves 4-10 in. 

 long and often as broad, the upper variously lobed and more or less 

 deeply cut though never to the base, more or less pubescent, coarsely 

 serrate, the serratures triangular, sometimes g in. deep, base cordate or 

 truncate ; petioles 3-7 in. long, armed with stinging hairs ; stipules |-^ 

 by 5 in., ovate, cordate, shortly acuminate, 2fid. Flowers in pedunculate 

 racemose cymes, the males in the lower, the females in the upper axils. 

 Male flowers; Sepals -^-^ in. long, elhptic, obtuse. Pistillode sub- 

 globose, slightly hollowed at the apex. Female flowers: Perianth 

 -j^Q in. long, 3-lobed at first to less than | way down, afterwards splitting 

 on one side ; lobes triangular, acute, hairy. Fruiting cymes short, stout, 

 1-2 in. long by I-I4 in. broad, densely clothed with slender stinging 

 hairs ; peduncles rather shorter than the cyme. Acheues 1 in. long and 

 nearly as broad as long, obliquely ovate, much compressed. Weddell, 

 Monog. Urtic. p. 166 ; Praiu, Eeng. PI. p. 961. Girardinia heterophylla, 

 Dalz. & Gribs. p, 238 {not of Decaisne); Woodr, in Journ. Bomb. iN"at. 

 V. 12 (1899) p. 516. G. heterophylla var. zeylunica, Hook. f. Fl, B. I, 

 V. 5, p. 551 ; "Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 3, p. 501. Urtica zeyJanica, 

 Burm. Thes. Zeyl. p. 231, Urtica heterophylla, Eoxb. Fl. Ind, v, 3 

 (1832) p. 586 {not of Vahl) ; Wight, Icon, t, 687; Grab. Cat, p. 187.— 

 Flowers : Oct. Vern. Motha Khdjoti. 



KoNKAN : Stocks ! ; W. Ghats, Woodrow. Deccan : Mabableshwar, Cooke !, H. M. 

 Birdwood, Woodrow. — Distrib. India (Chota Nagpur, W. Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



The plant furnishes a very stiong fibre, but owing to its stinging properties the 

 extraction is difficult. 



7. LECANTHUS, Wedd, 



Succulent herbs ; stems ascending, decumbent and often rooting at 

 the base. Leaves opposite in unequal pairs, ovate, serrate, 3-uerved 

 from the oblique base ; stipules scarious. Flowers monoecious or 

 dioecious, crowded on solitary, axillary, pedunculate, bracteate, saucer- 

 like, fleshy receptacles, Male flowers: Sepals 4-5, subequal. Stamens 

 4-5 ; filaments inflexed in bud. Female flowers : Sepals 3 or 4, 

 minute, nearly equal or very unequal. Ovary straight ; ovule erect ; 

 stigma sessile, penicillate. Achene ovoid, compressed ; albumen fleshy ; 

 cotyledons ovate. — Distrib. India, Ceylon, China, Java, Africa; 

 species 2. 



A low weak herb rarely reaching 6 in. high ; female perianth of 



3 very unequal seguients 1. L. Wiqhtii. 



More robust, reaching 24 in. liigli ; female perianth of 4 subequal 



segments 2. L. Jf 'cdlicMi. 



