902 Acanthaceae. 
512. (1.) Blepharis Juss. 
Calyx sub-4-partite to the base; 2 anticous segments connate 
nearly to the tip; posticous segment lanceolate 3-nerved, usually 
longer than the anticous; 2 interior segments narrow, long or short. 
Corolla: posticous lip 0, replaced by a horny rim; anticous lip nearly 
flat, 3—5-lobed, bluish, white, or fading to yellowish. Stamens 4, 
subsimilar; anthers 1-celled, narrow-oblong, muticous, fringed with 
white hairs near the slit; filaments of 2 anticous stamens more 
flattened with rudiments of missing anther more developed; pollen 
longish-ellipsoid, with a few very narrow longitudinal smooth chinks 
not reaching the poles. Ovary with 2—1 ovules in each cell, 
glabrous; style glabrous, rarely with a few thin hairs below, branches 2, 
lanceolate; at the apex of the ovary on the posticous face are 2 
hollows filled with glands. Capsule ellipsoid, flattened, woody, shining- 
brown, 2- (rarely 4-) seeded; seeds covered with rope-like hair- 
bundles, which on applying water unroll into very long 1-celled hairs 
each furnished with a spiral within. — Harsh prickly, or smooth 
slender, undershrubs without stellate or gland-tipped hairs. Leaves 
by the adjacent pairs being drawn together appearing in whorls of 4, 
outer pair in each whorl often smaller, sometimes very much smaller, 
or reduced and almost resembling stipules. Spikes of flowers stro- 
bilate; bract green, ovate or obovate, veined, nearly always spinous; 
bracteoles 2 or 0, linear, rarely lanceolate, 1-nerved, acute; in many 
spikes all the bracts except the highest sterile, so that these are 
commonly described as having solitary flowers. 
Species 50, nearly all African, many in South Africa, a few extending 
through Arabia and the Orient region to India. 
1252. Blepharis edulis Pers. Synops. II (1807), p. 180. — 
Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. dEg., p.118 no. 806. — Boiss. Flor. 
Or. IV, p. 520. — Lindau in Engler and Prantl Natuerl. Pflanzen- 
fam. IV, fase. IIB p.318 fig. 126A. — Ruellia ciliaris L. Mant, 
p. 89. — Acanthus edulis Forsk. Flor. aeg.-arab., p. 114. — Acanthus 
Delilei Spreng. System. If, p.819. — Acanthus tetragonus R. Br. in 
Sult Abyss. Plant. Append. XV. — Acanthodium spicatum Delile 
Mlustr. Flor. d’Eg., p.97 tab. 33 fig. 2. — DC. Prodrom. XI, p. 274. 
— (The synonym Ruellia ciliaris Linn., is doubtful, because Linnaeus 
description is to shoort!). — Grey pubescent or nearly glabrate. 
Stem short, rigid, branched. Leaves in fours at the sterile nodes; 
upper pair 5 by 1 cm, oblong or narrow-elliptic, sessile, spinous- 
margined; lower pair smaller but similar. Inflorescences strobilate, 
up to 9 em long, sometimes short; bracts 2—2"/, cm long, ovate, 
acuminate, recurved, spinous, puberulous, more or less hairy on the 
