Fleurya.] cxxiiio. urticace.'e (Rendle). 251 



a starved form ivraarkable for having the loaves gonrrally opposite. Hiorn 

 was presumably misled by this chaiacter to assign the plants to the genus 

 Adicen {Pika), as he deseribes the leaves as oppositi; though in one of the s|)eei- 

 mens they are alternate only. In other charmters of leaf, llowei' and fruit the 

 plants are identical with Flfuryn moormna ; the linear swl)apical style is typically 

 that of Flenrya. Hiern describes the plants as dioecious, hnl of ff>ur Howci- 

 bearing specimens three have both male and female flowers. 



7. F. podocarpa, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 70. A stoloni- 

 fcrous herb, sometimes almost an imdershrub, 1-5 ft. high ; stem, 

 petioles and peduncles more or less densely covered with whitisli 

 spreading or appressed stinging hairs, or glabrate ; stolons creeping 

 beneath or on the surface of the soil. Leaves on shorter or longer 

 petioles, membranous, ovate to deltoid-ovate, acuminate, base sub- 

 truncate to bluntly wedge-shaped, margin dentate to crenate-dentate, 

 teeth blunt, 3-nerved at the base, with 4-6 ascending lateral nerves 

 on each side above, 2-4 in. long, 1J-2| in. wide, or smaller on the 

 stolons, more or less hairy to glabrate, hairs white and appressed, 

 more frequent on the lower face, with short linear cystohths con- 

 spicuous on the lower face ; petiole generally shorter but sometimes 

 longer than the blade, up to 3J in. long ; stipules 3-6 lin. long, the 

 free portions lanceolate-subulate. Inflorescences unisexual, rarely 

 androgynous, the male forming dense roundish clusters on long 

 peduncles which spring directly from the underground stem as naked 

 scapes or are axillary ; peduncle fleshy, rosy or purplish, limp, erect - 

 spreading or ascending, but generally much exceeding the petiole, 

 1-12 in. long ; inflorescence J to lOJ in. long, sometimes with a few 

 short branches in the lower part ; flower clusters 2 to 6 lin. in diam.. 

 subsessile or on short pedicels ; male perianth usually 5- (rarely 4). 

 partite, segments elliptic-ovate, 1 lin. long, whitish-green, rosy out- 

 side, and sparingly hispid, " anthers dehiscing ex]ilosively with a 

 momentar}^ development of heat " {Wrhvitsch). Feinale cymes 

 inconspicuous, loosely few-flowered in the lower leaf-axils or on the 

 stolons, weak, becoming reflexed, shorter than the petioles ; perianth 

 campanulate, 4-lobed to below the middle, the anterior segment 

 smaller than the remaining three ; stigma linear-tapering, recurving, 

 1 lin. long, with a pair of shorter (about 1 lin. long), basal linear 

 appendages. Achenes often produced underground, compressed - 

 ovate, 1^-2 lin. long, with a pyriform obscurely tuberculate central 

 area, enveloped at the base by the persistent perianth. — Engl. 

 Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 163 (including var. awphicarpa, Engl.), and in Mild- 

 braed, Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr. Exped. 1907-8, ii. IW: 

 Th. & Hel. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congol. 511; \^y. fuluihunis, Hiern 

 in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 989. Fleurya sp. no. 1, Benth. in Hook. 

 Niger Fl. 517. Haynca ovalifolia, Schumach. in Schumach. & Thonn. 

 Beskr. Guin. PI. 406. 



Upper Ouinea. Liberia: Cape Palmas, An-^cll \ Ashanti : Assin Yan 

 Kumassi, Cummins, 173 ! 232 ! Togo : near Lome, W'armcl-p, 438 ! and 

 without precise locality, Banmann, 182 ! Southern Nigeria : Nun River, 



