124. UBTICACE.E. [5. Boehmeria. 



1. B. rugulosa, Wedd. Dar, Nep. 



A small tree with dark rough bark and narrowly elliptic or elliptic- 

 lanceolate leaves 3-5-7" long, acute or somewhat acuminate, closely 

 crenulate, pale beneath Avith a fine hoary tomentum. Dioecious. 

 M. spikes 2-3-5" long, slender flexuous when mature, pubescent, the 

 clusters each supported by a broadly ovate bract -1" long. Fern, 

 spikes similar, sometimes only -75-1" and stiffly spreading in flower, 

 3-6" in fruit, perianth hispid-hairy. Achenes elliptic, stipitate. 



Sameshwar Hills, on the boundary of Nepal, 2900 ft. ! Fl. Sept. Fr. Nov. 



Our tree is small and stunted, but I have seen it in Bhotan 40-50 ft. high and 4-5 

 ft. girth. Blaze pink. Upper surface of leaf glabrous, often rugulose, closely 

 dotted when dry, primary nerves strong, others weak. Petiole •7-1-3", Stipules 

 •15". The clusters are contiguous in young tlowers and are covered by the bracts 

 in bud and resemble catkins; they become distant in maturity and the spikes more 

 tiexuous. 



2. B. macrophylla, Don. 



A large shrub 6-10 ft. high easily recognised by its long opposite 

 narrowly lanceolate rugulose serrulate leaves 6-15" long, and long 

 ■drooping axillary spikes with very close clusters of flowers. Monoecious. 



Saranda forests in ravines, rare ! Fl. Sept.-Oct. Fr. Feb. 



Twigs terete or somewhat angled, strigose. Leaves 1-3" broad, strongly 3-nerved, 

 tapering from the obtuse base, rather pale and strigillose on the nerves beneath, 

 the nervules raised and forming areoles lieneath, depressed above. Petiole -75-3" 

 ■(in the very long leaves). Stipules free, -6", caducous. Spikes axillary drooping, 

 6-8" or nearly as long as the leaves, rhachis and receptacle hirsute, clusters 

 globose, '25" diam., contiguous in fruit. Fruiting perianth clavate or pyriform, 

 compressed, suddenly constricted at the minute 2-4-toothed mouth, thinly hairy, 

 •07" long, persistent style hooked in fruit. 



3. B. platyphylla, Don. 



A spreading loose shrub 4-10 ft. high with branches strigose or 

 strigillose especially at the nodes, and large broadly elliptic or ell.- 

 ovate leaves 4-8" long by 3-6" broad, opposite or rarely upper sub- 

 alternate, usually unequal in each pair and with unequal petioles 

 1-6" long, margin crenate- dentate or coarsely serrate, base rounded 

 to cordate, often oblique. Flowers monoecious (or rarely dioecious ?). 

 Males in usually branched spikes from the lower axils, females minute 

 in close clusters under -2" diam., on simple short or very long spikes 

 from the upper axils, sometimes spikes male below and female above. 

 Fruiting perianth narrowly ellipsoid or slightly obovoid, -03" long, 

 somewhat or scarcely compressed, sometimes unequally angled. 



In moist or shady localities, or in ravines in the hills. N. Champaran ! Purneah ! 

 Singbhum, Paiamau, Ranchi, Hazaribagh, either in ravines or on banks at 2500 

 ft. and upwards ! Similar localities in the Southern Area. Angul ! Pari ! 

 Sambalpur ! Fl. r.s. and c.s. Fr. c.s. and h.s. Evergreen. 



A variable plant split up by some botanists into a number of species but 

 connected by many gradations. The female spikes have to be compared in similar 

 stages as they are erect and shorter than the leaves when young, often the same 

 being long inclined or drooping with age. I follow Weddell in treating the forms 

 as varieties of one species, especially as it seems that the var. scabrella {B. 

 scahreUa, Gaud.) has been variously interpreted. 



Do7i describes his type {Urtiua platyphylla. Ham., M.S.) as with leaves cordate- 

 ovate acuminate, coarsely serrate and with the branchlets very scabrid both sides, 

 female spikes simple with the clusters distinct, male spikes compound. It was 

 collected in Nepal. 



Weddell {Monograph, 1856-57), who apparently includes the type under his form 



815 



