200 ACANTHACUJE. [Baelebu. 



compressed, ovate, clothed with wavy silky closely appressed hairs. — 

 Species about 120, mostly in Trop. Asia and Africa, a few in Trop. 

 America. 



Prickly shrubs or undershrubs :— 

 Outer calyx-segments ending in a spine, capsule 



2-seeded . . . • . . . 1. B. Prionitis. 



Outer calyx -segments mucroDate, not spine - 



tipped ; capsule 4-seeded . . . . 2. B. acanthoides. 

 Unarmed shrubs or undershrubs : — 

 Outer calyx-segments subapinescently toothed 



on the margin, capsule 4-seeded . . 3.B. cristata. 



Outer calyx-segments strigose with denticulate 



and ciliate margins, capsule 4-seeded . 4. B. strigosa. 



1. B. Prionitis, Linn. Sp. PI. 636 ; F. B. I. iv, 482 ; Watt S. D.; 

 Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 522 ; Prain Beng. PI. 812 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 

 879. Barleria Hystrix, Linn.; Boyle III. 298. 



A bush, 2-5 ft. high, usually very prickly. Stems and branches terete or 

 obscurely 4 angled, glabrous, bark white. Leaves petioled, about 4 in. 

 long, elliptic, acuminate and tipped with a bristle, lineolate, glabrous 

 or more or less pubescent beneath, tapering at the base, lower leaves 

 distinctly petioled, main lateral nerve3 about 5 pairs, interpetiolar 

 spines £-f in. long. Flowers in terminal spikes, the lower ones often 

 distant ; bracts leaf -like, about f in. long, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute and ending in a bristle, glabrous ; bracteolea i in. long, narrower 

 and almost spine-tipped. Calyx divided nearly to the base ; 2 outer 

 segments about | in. long, oblong-lanceolate, spin9-tipped ; the 2 inner 

 shorter, linear-lanceolate, mucronate. Corolla orange-yellow or cream- 

 coloured, somewhat 2 lipped, H-lf in. long, sparingly hairy outside ; 

 upper lip with 4 nearly equal rounded lobes, lower lip rather shorter, 

 tube about as long aa the upper lip. Capsule f -1 in. long, with a taper- 

 ing solid beak, 2-seeded. Seeds ^ in. in diam. 



Common within the area, and often used as a hedge-plant. Flowers Oct.- 

 Jan. Distrib. Throughout the hotter parts of India, also in Ceylon, 

 Burma and the Malay Peninsula, extending to Trop. and S. Africa. 

 The juice of the leaves and the roots are used medicinally by the natives 

 in some parts of India. 



2. B. acanthoides, Vahl Synib. i, 47 ; F. B. I. iv, 484 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. 

 it, 381. 



A small prickly much-branched undershrub ; branches terete, hoary- 

 pubescent. Leaves sessile or shortly petioled, hairy, dark-green, 

 |-]| in. long, oblong or obovate, obtuse, mucronate, tapering to the 

 base, main lateral nerves 5 pairs. Inflorescence of dense unilateral 

 racemes or reduced to a solitary flower ; bracts |-f in. long, spine- - 

 pointed, sometimes spinous-piniiatifid or reduced to pinnatifid spines 



