 Erarosrema. ] URTICACES. 127 
7. ELATOSTEMA, Forst., F). Brit. Ind. V, 562. 
Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves alternate or with sometimes 
a minute leaf sub-opposite to the normal leaf, distichous, sessile 
or sub-sessile, usually very oblique and unequal-sided, 3-nerved 
at or near the base; stipules lateral or intrapetiolar. Flowers 
very minute, crowded on sessile or peduncled unisexual usually 
involucrate receptacles ; bracts oblong or ovate, the outer some- 
times with a dorsal spur or horn, bases nearly free or more or less 
confluent in a fieshy circular or lobed disk, the tips usually projecting 
from its margin; bracteoles densely crowded, those of the male 
heads usually oblong, of the females spathulate ; florets often 
in clusters, each cluster surrounded by a partial bract, giving the 
head a lobed appearance. Mate flowers. Sepals 4 or 5, two or 
more usually tubercled or spurred on the back. Stamens 4 or 5, 
inflexed in bud. Pistillode minute. Frm. flowers: Sepals 3-5, 
very minute, much shorter than ovary, persistent. Staminodes 
minute or none. Ovary straight, stigma penicillate, ovule erect. 
Fruit a minute ellipsoid or fusiform usually ribbed achene subtended 
by the very minute perianth. Seed usually exalbuminous, testa 
membranous, cotyledons ovate or semiterete.—Species about 50, 
tropics of the Old World except in Australia. 
E. sessile. Forst. Char. Gen. 106, var. polycephala, Hk. f. in 
F. B. 1. V, 563 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 466. Procris punctata, B.-Ham. 
in Don Prod. 61. 
Stem 1-2 ft., often bent at the joints, prostrate and rooting below. 
Leaves sessile or nearly so, membranous, 4-8 in. long, obliquely 
oblanceolate or oblong, coarsely serrate, the tip caudate, bright 
green when dry, cystoliths abundant on upper surface. Receptacles 
solitary or 2-3 together, }-} in. diam., the males sessile, the fem. 
shortly stalked and without involucral bracts; bracteoles very 
minute, villous, hyaline. Achenes very minute, ellipsoid, acute 
at both ends, ribbed. 
Dehra Dun, in shady ravines. Duisrriz.: Himalaya from the Punjab 
eastwards and up to 8,000 ft.; also in Assam, and southwards to 
the Nilgiri Hills and Ceylon; extending to trop. Africa, the Malay 
and Pacific Islands, China and Japan. 
