276 cxxiiiD. URTiCAOEiE (Kendle). [Lecanthus. 



8. LECANTHUS, Wedd. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PL iii. 385. 



Flowers niona'cious or dioecious. Male flower : Perianth 4-5- 

 partite, segments concave, gibbous below the hooded apex. Stamens 

 4-5 ; ovary rudiment small. Female flowers : Perianth 3-4-par- 

 tite, segments une(jual, persistent. Staminodes opposite the perianth- 

 segments, small, scale-like. Ovary straight, ovule erect from the 

 base of the chamber. Stigma sessile, penicillate. Achene straight, 

 ovate, somewhat comjjressed, invested with the persistent perianth- 

 segments. Seed-coat membranous, conforming to the pericarp ; 

 albumen very scanty ; cotyledons elliptic. — Annual or perennial 

 herbs with the habit of Pilea. Leaves opposite, stalked, those of a 

 pair unequal, serrate, 3-nerved. Stipules scarious, connate into one, 

 intrapetiolar. .Flowers on stalked discoid or turbinate receptacles 

 which are solitary in the leaf-axils ; male and female flowers on 

 separate plants or more rarely mixed in the same receptacle ; flowers 

 generally stalked. Long-stalked sterile flowers may occur in the 

 female receptacles. 



Species 2 ; one in tropical Asia and Africa, one in the Society Jslands. 



1. L. peduncularis, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 164. A delicate 

 herb, varying in African specimens from a little over an inch to 10 in. 

 in height. Stems one to several, erect from a creeping rooting base, 

 simple or branched, succulent, glabrous, from J-l| lin. thick, leafy 

 except at the lower nodes, leaves increasing in size in the upper part. 

 Leaves thinly papery when dry, ovate to elliptic-ovate, apex acute 

 to acuminate, base blunt to cuneate, sometimes unequal, margin 

 serrate, teeth usually large, the smaller lower leaves rarely nearly or 

 quite entire, varying very much in size, from J in. to 2f in. long, 

 J-I4 in. wide, glabrous except for a few scattered sharp-pointed 

 white hairs on the upper face, both faces with numerous linear cysto- 

 liths ; nerves more conspicuous on the lower face ; the lateral pair 

 failing in the upper part of the leaf ; petioles slender, glabrous, 

 varying greatly in length, from 1 lin. to 1 J in. long, those of a pair 

 unequal. United stipules scarious, generally persistent, broadly 

 elliptic, a little over 1 lin. long in the larger leaves. Receptacles 

 on slender stalks ; male generally very small, turbinate and shortly 

 stalked. Female varying greatly in size, generally from 1-4 lin. in 

 diam. in African specimens ; margin of disc with bluntly rounded 

 overlapping lobes, back of disc with linear cystoliths ; peduncle 

 filiform, J-1 in. long ; perianth deeply divided into 3 to 4 unequal 

 segments, '4-h lin. long, which are clavate with a more orless hooded 

 a])ex ; in the outer series of flowers the outermost perianth-segment 

 is often conspicuously larger, with a more prominent hood than the 

 remaining 2 or 3 ; where 4 segments are present the one opposite 

 the larger is the smallest. Achene chestnut-brown, narrowly ovoid 



