104. ACANTHACE.^. [28. Rhinacanthus. 



Fittonia spp. are pretty little low trailing plants with beautifully 

 colovired veined leaves and rather inconspicvious flowers in bracteate 

 spikes. They are natives of Peru and commonly seen in grass green- 

 houses. 



26. ECBOLIUM, Kurz. 



Shrub or undershrub with entire leaves and blue flowers in terminal 

 dense spikes Avith large imbricate bracts and small narrow bracteoles, 

 €alyx sub-5-partite, segments eqvial or rather unequal, narrow. 

 Corolla with long almost filiform tube and 2-lipped limb, upper lip 

 narrow slightly 2-cleft, lower 3-lobed. Stamens 2 inserted near top 

 of tube, anther-cells 2 oblong parallel approximate, muticous. Stigma 

 shortly 2-fid. Ovviles 2 in each cell. Capsule ovoid compressed Avith 

 long barren base. Seeds 4-2, large, compressed, orbicular, tubercular- 

 scabrous. 



1. E. Linneanum, Kurz. Var. dentata, Clarke. 



An imdershrub 2-4 ft. with tough green branches, lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate leaves, acuminate both ends, 4-9 5" long, and steel- 

 blue or greenish-blue rarely white flowers, only opening one or two 

 at a time, in dense spikes 1-3" long. Corolla with a very slender tube 

 1" long. Capsule •?" subspathulate with an ovate upper portion 

 very acute or cuspidate compressed at right angles to the long lower 

 barren base. 



Moist shady places. Hills of Puri ! Fl., Pr. Sept.-April. 



L. tapering at base into a short winged petiole, tip sometimes caudate, pale 

 ■beneath, puberulous or pubescent on the 5-6 sec. n. ; tertiary n. faint. Bracts 

 herbaceous, pale-green, ovate-elliptic, '7b" long, dentate or denticulate and with a 

 flue short cusp, somewhat glandular-hairy.' Calyx segments "IS" long, linear- 

 subulate. Cor. softly hairy, lower lip wrapping round the very slender upper lip 

 in bud. Anthers purple. Seed usually 1 in each cell, with lines of strong papillae. 



27. GRAPTOPHYLLUM, Nees. 



Glabrous shrubs with entire or spinous-toothed, visually variegated 

 leaves and red pedicelled flowers in sessile cymes collected into 

 terminal thyrses. Bracts and bracteoles small. Calyx short, equally 

 5-partite. Corolla 2-lipped, tube with a wide rather deep throat, 

 straight or bent, upper lip with two somewhat reflexed toothed lobes, 

 lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens 2 fertile exserted, inserted in the throat ; 

 anther-cells equal parallel, base muticose ; staminodes 2, small. 

 Capsule long-pedicelled. Ovules iTSually 2. 



1. G. pictum, Griff. Syn. G. hortense, Nees ; Justicia picta, L. ; 

 Caricatvire-plant. 

 A shrvib 3-5 ft. high with large elliptic or broadly elliptic subsessile 

 leaves 3-8" long, variegated with Avhite. Flowers dark red 1'5" 

 long in thyrses 2-4" long. 



Common in gardens. Native of Polynesis. " Tree up to 15 ft. with edible leaves." 

 J?ey. Comming, 



28. RHINACANTHUS, Nees. 



Shrubs or undershrubs with entire leaves and mod. -sized white 

 flowers solitary or in small contracted cymes on the branches of dense 

 or divaricate panicles. Bracts and bracteoles small linear-lanceolate. 



695 



