212 ACANTRACEM. [ Rungia. 



lip emarginate. Cells of lower anthers with a white appendage at the 

 base. Capsule about j in, long, pubescent, scarious en the faces, edges 

 hard. Seeds concentrically rugose. 



Abundant within the area. Distrib. Throughout the warmer parts of 

 India, and in Ceylon. The plant is often used medicinally. 



2. R. parviflora, Nees in Wall. PI, As. Ear. Hi, 110, vae. 

 pectinata, C. B. Clarke in F. B. I. iv, 550 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. PI,. 

 821 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 400. Justicia pectinata, Linn, ; Boxb. Fl. Ind. i % 

 loo, 



A much-brarched procumbent annual. Leaves £-about 2| in. long, elliptic 

 or oblong-lanceolate, acate or subobtuse, glabrous or sparsely hairy, 

 lineolate, base acute, petioles £-§ in. long. Flowering spikes i-1 in. 

 long, often 2 or 3 together at the ends of the branches; bracts dimorphic, 

 the barren ones ^ in. long, in two rows, lanceolate, cuspidate, pubescent, 

 margins scarious ; fertile bracts | in. in diam., orbicular, hairy on both 

 surfaces, margins broadly scarious, usually 2-fid. at the apex ; bracteoles 

 smaller than the bracts, elliptic-oblong, subacute, concave, 2-fid., the 

 margins scarious and ciliate. Calyx j^ in. long, linear-lanceolate. 

 Corolla white, with blue lines, j in. long, hairy outside; upper lip • 

 acuminate, not emarginate. Anthers superposed, the lower ones white- 

 tailed. Capsule |o in. long, ovoid, acute, compressed, hairy at the 

 apex and with scarious faces. Seeds minutely echinulate. 



A common weed within the area. Distrib. Throughout the warmer parts 

 of India and in Ceylon, ascending to 4,000 ft. on the Kumaon Himalaya, 

 The roots, leaves and the juice of this plant are used in native 

 medicines. 



25. DICLIPTERA, Juss. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 550. 



Diffuse or sub-erect herbs. Leaves ovate or elliptic, acute, entire or 

 obscurely undulate. Flowers in axillary and terminal clusters or in 

 panicled cymes, one or more enclosed within a pair of opposite bracts, 

 the flowers sessile within the bracts and often reduced to a calyx and 

 bracteoles ; bracts exceeding the calyx ; bracteoles linear or linear-lan- 

 ceolate, about equalling the calyx. Calyx 5 -partite ; segments equal, 

 linear-lanceolate, more or less pubescent. Corolla red often spotted 

 with purple, tube slender, limb deeply 2-lipped ; upper lip entire or 

 emarginate ; lower 3-lobed, recurved. Stamens 2, anthers 2-celled ; 

 cells ovoid, usually superposed, muticous. Ovary with 2 ovules in 

 each cell, style filiform, stigma shortly bifid. Fruit a clavate capsule, 

 narrowed below into a solid stalk, placentas separating elastically 

 from the base of the capsule after dehiscence. Seeds ovoid or suborbi- 

 cular, compressed, verrucose echinulate or papillose.— Species about 

 60, in tropical and sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres. 



