184 ACANTBACE&. [ Asteracantha. 



A small shrub, somewhat spinose-bristly. Stem usually very short or 

 none ; branches slender, clothed with short grey pubescence. Leaves 

 sessile in whorls of four, unequal, l-2fr in. long, linear, acute, finely 

 apiculate, roughly hairy, margins often with a few spine-like teeth near 

 the base. Spikes strobilate, hairy, 1-3 in. long, in the forks of the 

 branches, solitary in the upper forks and usually numerous in the lowest 

 one ; peduncle stout, woody ; bracts in four rows, |-1 in. long, the lowest 

 the smallest, ovate, abruptly acuminate and spinous-pointed at the apex, 

 hairy on the both sides, armed towards the apex with slender usually 

 recurved spines, nerves 5 braote°les 2, shorter than the bracts, lanceo- 

 late, acute, hairy and ciliate, reticulate-veined. Calyx softly hairy on 

 both sides ; largest segment ^ in. long, ovate, bluntly acuminate, the 

 apex truncate and densely ciliate ; nerves 7, the 3 central ones^ parallel, 

 each ending in a bristly tooth ; the opposite calyx-segment f in. long 

 similar in shape, the 3 parallel nerves not produced ; lateral segments £ 

 in. long, ovate, acute, 1-nerved. Corolla about \ in. long, mid-lobe of 

 lower lip quadrate, twice as large as the rounded lateral ones ; tube \ 

 in. long, constricted below the limb. Capsule % in. long, ellipsoid, 

 compressed, shining, 2-seeded. Seeds £ in. long, densely clothed with 

 long stout hairs. 



Ajmer (Duthie). Flowers during the end of the rainy season. Distrib. 

 Punjab. Sind and Gujarat. Eeduced by Clarke in " Fl. Trop. Africa " to 

 the African B. lineari&folia, Pers., but, as Dr. Cooke points out, the 

 corolla is very different. 



6. ASTERACANTHA, Nees. 

 Under Hygrophila in Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 408. 



A stout herb, growing in wet ground. Stems many, fascicled, 

 spinous at the nodes. Leaves narrow, lanceolate, arranged in whorls 

 of 6, the 2 outer leaves of each whorl larger. Flowers in sessile 

 axillary whorls, surrounded by rigid spines, bracts leaf -like, bracteoles 

 linear-lanceolate. Calyx deeply 4-partite, the upper segment broader. 

 Corolla distinctly 2-lipped, upper lip 2-lobed ; lower 3-lobed, with 2 

 crest-like folds on the palate. Stamens didynamous ; anthers 2-celled, 

 equal ; the cells parallel, glabrous, muticous. Ovary with 4 ovules in 

 each cell, style hairy ; stigma simple, acuminate. Fruit a compressed 

 linear-oblong capsule. Seeds 4-8, clothed with white hygroscopic 

 hairs, retinacula hard. —A single species, found in India, Ceylon and 

 in Trop. and S. Africa. 



A. longifolia, Nees in Wall. PI. As. Bar. Hi, 90 ; Boyle III. 298 ; 

 Lindau in Engl, and Prantl. Pflanzenf. iv, 3 B, 297 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 

 852. Hygrophila spinosa, T. Anders. ; F. B. I. vo, 408 ; Watt E. D. ; Collett, 

 Fl. Siml. 371 : Prain Beng. PI. 802. Euellia longifolia, Boxb. Fl. Ind. Hi, 

 50. 



