244 cxxiiid. urticace^ (Rendle). [Ohetia. 



2. OBETIA, lUiud. ; Bentli. et Hook. f. Gen. PL iii. 382. 



Flowers dituc-ious in small cymose clusters on a much branched 

 axillary panicle. Male flowers : Bud depressed globose. Perianth 

 divided into ;'3 concave lobes which are valvate in bud ; stamens 5, 

 with a central ovary-rudiment. Female flowers : Perianth with 4 

 broad segments, an outer smaller and an inner larger pair, increasing 

 in fruit. Ovary ovoid, bearing a shortly penicillate stigma on the 

 upper oblique portion ; ovule erect from the base. Achene com- 

 pressed, ovoid to orbicular, partially enveloped in the thinly mem- 

 branous persistent perianth. Seed-coat membranous, conforming to 

 the thin pericarp ; albumen scanty ; cotyledons broad, rounded. — 

 Shrubs or small trees with thick branches, the younger portion bear- 

 ing stinging hairs. Leaves alternate, petioled, simple, often palmately 

 or pinnately lobed, base cordate, margin toothed or crenate, softly 

 hairy especially on the under face. Stipules lateral, foliaceous, 

 persistent. Bracts linear. 



Species 5, in Madagascar and Tropical Africa. 



Leaves deeply pinnatjfid ; eastern ... ... ... I. 0. 'pinnntifidii. 



Leaves cordate, sometimes partially lohed ; western... 2. 0. carruthersiana. 



1. 0. pinnatifida, Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xx. 264. A bush 

 or small tree up to 20 ft. high, with a simple fleshy stem and 

 the habit of an unbranched Araliad or a Carica with a perennial 

 crown {Dawe and Evatis), or with ultimate branchlets as thicJc 

 as a man's little finger, w4th leaves crowded at the top (Baker). 

 Leaves stalked, ovate-cordate in general outline but deeply pinna- 

 tifid, with the primary segments again pinnately lobed. apex of leaf 

 and segments long-acuminate, base deeply cordate, margin coarsely 

 crenate, up to about a foot wide and nearly as long, upper face dark 

 green, hispidulous and with stinging hairs on the prominent veins 

 and sparsely scattered over the surface, lower face matted with a 

 whitish velvety tomentum ; petioles stout, 3-6 in. long, shorter than 

 the blade, tomentose and beset with de flexed stinging hairs. 

 Stipules large, persistent, ovate, shortly acuminate, brown, reaching 

 1 in. in length. Male panicle (one only seen) much smaller than the 

 female, about 4 in. long with short branches bearing the densely 

 clustered flowers ; flower-buds about IJ lin. in diam. ; perianth- 

 segments hispidulous, sometimes with the characteristic stinging 

 hairs on the back. Female panicle dense, very much branched, half- 

 a-f oot or more long, the short peduncles and slender branches .sparsely 

 armed with deflexed stinging hairs. Accrescent perianth-lobes 

 broadly elliptic to orbicular, greenish-brown or pale brown, the larger 

 pair about 1 lin. broad. Achene broadly ovoid, greenish or pale 

 brown, about J lin. long, narrowly winged, faces obscurely warted. — 

 Engl, in Mildbraed, Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr. Exped. 1907- 

 8, ii. 190, and in Engl. Jahrb. li. 423, fig. 1. 



