Lepidagatiiis.] AC ANT II AC F.J . 203 



20. LEPIDAGATHIS, VYilld.; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 515. 



Herba or anderahrubs, often pubescent. Leaves entire or crenate* 

 eerrate. Flowers sessile, usually capitate, sometimes opposite ot 

 solitary ; heada terminal or axillary, almost always dense, often 1- 

 sided. sometimes fascicled ; bracts usually conspicuous, bracteoles 

 smaller. Calj/>v deeply 5-lobed ; segments unequal, the 2 anterior 

 often more ox less connate, the calyx becoming almost 4-partite. 

 Corolla usually small, 2-lipped ; tube slender below, suddenly swollen 

 at 01 above the middle ; upper lip erecto-patent, usually notched or 

 2-fui., lower lip with 3 spreading usually spotted lobes. Stamens 

 didynamous, included ; anthers all 2-celled ; cells oblong, muticous, 

 frequently bearded, one of them often attached higher up than the 

 other. / isk annular. Ovary with 2 ovules (rarely 1) in each cell, 

 style recurved, tigma capitellate, shortly 2-lobed or entire. Fruit a 

 compressed ovoid-oblong lanceolate capsule. Seeds 2 or 4, compressed, 

 ovate-oblong or orbicular, hairy. — Species about 80, in the warmer 

 regions of the world, but in America two only are known. 



Capsule 2-seeded, bursting irregularly, seeds 

 clothed with long hairs : — 



Calyx-lobes spinescent . . . , 1. L. Hamiltoniana. 



Calyx-lobes not spinescent . . . . 2. L. trinervis. 



Capsule 4-seeded. distinctly 2-valved, seeds 

 clothed with short hairs : — 

 An erect undershrub, bracts and calyx- 

 segments glandular-hairy . . 3. L. cuspidata. 



Diffuse or prostrate herbs, rarely sub- 

 erect -. — 



Bracts striate . . . . . 4. L. purpuricaulis. 



Bracts not striate . . . . . 5. L. hyalina. 



1. L. Hamiltoniana, Wall. PI. As. Ear. Hi, 96 ; F. B. I. iv, 516 ; Watt 

 E. D. {under L. cristata var. rupestris) ; Prain Beng. PI. 815. 



A perennial herb. Stems elongate, flagelliform, leafy upwards. leaves 

 5-6 in. long, linear or narrowly oblong, subfalcate, nearly glabrous, 

 margins scabrous. Spikes in globular heads, arising from the base of 

 the stems : bracts up to £ in. long, lance, late, acuminate, spinescent, 

 margins ciliate with lung white spreading hairs. Calyz-segments mem- 

 branous, tough, lanceolate, acuminate, spinescent, not thickened 

 upwards, the lower one broader and bifid. Corolla strigose outside 

 with white hairs, spotted with brown inside. Copwlfl 2-seeded, conical, 

 scarious en the back, thin and irregularly rupturing. Seeds ovate, 

 covered w;th long hairs. 



