2 
NYCTAGINACEZ. [| BoERHAAVIA, 
long or short, ovoid below; limb funnel-shaped, 5-lobed. 
Stamens 1-5, exserted. Ovary oblique, stipitate, stigma peltate. 
Fruit small, 5-ribbed or -angled, viscidly glandular. Embryo 
hooked ; cotyledons broad and thin, the outer the larger, enclosing 
soft scanty albumen.—Species about 30, in tropical and sub-tropical 
regions of both hemispheres. 
Fruit glandular on the ribs, not at the 
crown :— 
Leaves of each pair very unequal, entire 
or subundulate ; flowers subcapitate, 
pink or purple . : : : . I. B. diffusa. 
Leaves of each pair nearly equal, repand- 
sinuate ; flowers in umbels, long-pedi- 
celled, pink ‘ : : f . 2. B. repanda. 
Fruit with large semiglobose glands round 
the crown; flowers in whorls, usually 
white ; leaves obtuse . : ; . o. B. verticillata. 
1. B. diffusa, Linn. Sp. Pil. 3; Royle Ill, 312; Watt EF. D.; 
Cooke Fl. Bomb. vi, 480. B. repens, Linn. ; F. B. I. iv, 709; 
Collett Fl. Siml. 410, fig. 131; Prain Beng. Pl. 862.  B. repens, 
vars. diffusa and procumbens, F. B. I. l. c. and Prain l. c |B. 
procumbens, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, 146. i 
A diffusely branched herb ; root stout, fusiform, rootstock woody. Stems 
2-3 ft. long, slender, prostrate or ascending, swollen at the nodes, 
minutely hairy and sometimes viscid or subglabrous, often tinged 
with purple. Leaves rather thick, arranged in unequal pairs at each 
node, 3-14 in. long, ovate oblong or sub-orbicular, green and 
glabrous above, usually white beneath ; base rounded or subcordate, 
margins subundulate, often pink ; petioles about as long as the blade. 
Flowers minute, subcapitate, 4-10 together in small bracteolate 
umbels forming slender long-stalked axillary and terminal panicles ; 
‘bracteoles lanceolate, acute. Perianth 34 in. long; tube glandular- 
hairy ; limb red, funnel-shaped, with 5 narrow vertical bands out- 
side. Stamens 2 or 3, slightly exserted. Fruit} in. long, clavate, 
rouaded, viscidly glandular on the 5 broad blunt ribs. 
An abundant weed within the area of this flora, and very variable in 
habit and pubescence according to soil and situation. DISTRIB. : 
Throughout India, ascending to 7,000 ft. in the warm valleys of the 
