636 CXVI, UKTICACE.E. 



clusters ; bracts small, scarious. Male flowers : Perianth 3-o-lobed 

 or -partite, valvate. Stamens 8-5, inflexed in bud. Pistillode clavate 

 or globose. Female flowers : Perianth tubular, 2-4-toothed, some- 

 times angled or winged or ventricose in fruit. Ovary included ; ovule 

 erect ; stigma filiform, persistent. Fruit a crustaeeous achene, at first 

 closely covered by the perianth, ultimately free. Seed with a thinly 

 membranous testa ; albumen copious or scanty ; cotyledons ovate. — 

 DiSTRiB. Chiefly tropical ; species about 45, 



Flower-clusters axillary ; leaves all alternate 1 . B. malaharica. 



Flower-clusters in simple or paniculate spikes ; leaves mostly 



opposite 2. B. scabrella. 



1. Boehmeria malabarica, Wedd. Monor/. Urtic. (1856) p. 355. 

 An erect shrub or small tree; bark thin, greyish-brown; stems and 

 branches terete, pubescent. Leaves membranous, alternate, subequal or 

 alternately large and small, the larger 4-8 by 1|-3| in., elliptic- 

 lanceolate, acuminate or caudate, crenulate or serrulate from above the 

 rounded subacute or sometimes cordate base, glabrous and sometimes 

 rugose above, pubescent beneath, strongly 3-nerved from the base with 

 2-4 lateral pairs of nerves above, reticulately veined between the nerves; 

 petioles |-3 in. long; stipules small, deciduous. Flowers monoecious, 

 minute, greenish-white, in small axillary sessile clusters \-\ in. in diam., 

 the males and females in different axils. Male flowers : Perianth 4- 

 partite, pubescent. Stamens 4. Pistillode small, subglobose. Female 

 flowers : Perianth tubular, 4-toothed, pubescent. Achenes minute, 

 ovoid, closely invested by the perianth. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 575; Trim. 

 Fl. Ceyl. V. 4, p. 113 ; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 334 ; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 516 ; Prain, Beng. PI. p. 964 ; Watt, 

 Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 1, p. 467. Boehmeria travancorica, Bedd. For. Man. 

 in Flor. Sylvat. p. ccxxv, & Anal. Gen. t. 27, fig. 2 (by error B. rami- 

 jlora). — Flowers : Nov.-Feb. 



Konkan: Stocks I, Lawl, Talbot. Kan.vra : Karwar, Woodrow; N. Kanara, in ever- 

 green forests, common on the Siddapur Ghat, Talbot ; Nilkund Ghat, Talbot, l(i29! — 

 DisTRiB. India (Sikkim Himalaya, Khasia Mountains, Chittagong, VV^. Peninsula) ; 

 Ceylon, Java. 



Tho plant yields a very strong fibre. 



2. Boehmeria scabrella, Gaud, in Frcyc Voij. (1826) p. 500. A 

 shrub with soft glabrous or strigose more or less grooved branches. 

 Leaves usually opposite, 3^-7 by I5-4 in., broadly ovate, acuminate or 

 caudate, sharply serrate with triangular serratures, nearly glabrous or 

 pubescent, wrinkled on both surfaces, base rounded or cordate ; main 

 nerves 3 from the base, each penniuervuled ; petioles |-4 in. long; 

 stipules lanceolate, acute. Flowers in small pisiform clusters on slender 

 (usually simple) erect sjjikes 4-8 in. long. Male flowers: Sepals 4, 

 ovate, acuminate. Female flowers: Perianth ^^q in. long, somewhat 

 fiask-shaped, shortly contracted roinid the base of the style into a very 

 small luicqiially 4-toothed mouth. Style j'j^ in. long ,filiform, pubescent, 

 sometimes curled, persistent. AclnMies fj; in. long, shining, compressed, 

 closely invested by the gibbous turgid pubescent perianth. C. B. Clark(>, 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc. v. 15, p. 124 ; Prain, iieng. PI. p. 964. B<r]n»n-in 

 2>hi/,/i,h>fUa, Talb. Trees Bomb. erl. 2, p. .334 (not of I^mi) ; W'.Mulr. 



