130 URTICACEZ. [BorHMERIA. 
4. B.scabrella, Gaud. in Freyc. Voy. 500; C. B. Clarke in 
Journ, Linn. Soc. XV, 124 ; i rain Beng. Pl. 964 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. 
636: B. platyphylla var scabrella, Wedd.; F. B. I. V, 578; 
Wait, E. D. Urtica scabrella, Roxb. iw, 581. 
A shrub with soft glabrous or strigose branches. Leaves usually 
opposite, 34-7 in. long, broadly ovate obovate or sub-orbicular, 
acuminate or cuspidate, sharply serrate with triangular teeth, usually 
rugose and lacunose beneath; base rounded or cordate, 3-nerved ; 
petioles -4 in. lorfg; stipules lanceolate, acute. Flowers in small 
glohose clusters on slender erect spikes. Male spikes crowded in 
the Jower axils, the female spikes usually solitary, net exceeding the 
terminal leaves. Mate FLoweERS: Sepals 4, ovate, acuminate. 
Frm. FLoweRS: Perianth ;'; in. long, pubescent, shortly contracted 
round the base of the persistent style into a small 4-toothed mouth. 
Achenes compressed, shining, closely invested by the turgid per- 
sistent perianth. 
Dehra Dun and eastwards along.the Sub-Himalayan tract. DisrRrs. : 
More or less throughout India from the outer Himalayan ranges ; 
also in Ceylon. 
B. Nivea, Gaud. ; Brandis For. Fl. 402; F. B. I. V, 4576; 
Watt E. D.; in Agril. Ledger No. 15 (1898) ; Comm. Frod. Ind. 
143 ; Gamble Man. 657 ; Prain Beng. Pl. 964; Cooke Fl. Bomb- 
ii, 637. Urtica nivea, L.—This is the well-known rheea or China 
grass, a native of China, Japan and the Malay Islands. It yields ~ 
a most valuable fibre and has been cultivated for several years 
in various parts of India. The expense, however, involved in its 
cultivation, and the difficulties met with in the extraction and 
preparation of the fibre have hitherto kept it in the background 
as a marketable fibre plant. 
B. Tenacissima, Gawd. (Urtica tenacissima, Roxb.) is regarded 
by most authors as a tropical variety of the above, differing cheifly 
by having the under surface of its leaves green instead of pure white. 
Tt is found wild in the Malay Peninsula and its native name is 
rami. 
9. POUZOLZIA, Gaud,; Fl. Brit. Ind. V, 580. 
Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves alternate or the lower, rarely 
all, opposite, usually entire, 3-nerved at the base, smaller upwards, 
