Lecanthus.] cxxiiid. urtioace.e (Rendic). 277 



to elliptic-ovoid, §-J lin. long. — Engl. Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 194 

 (pedunculaius). Lecanthus Wightii, Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. 4me 

 ser. i. 187, and Monogr. Urtic. 280, t. ix. C ; Hook. f. in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. vii. 216 {Leianthus) and in Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 559. L. major, 

 Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. I.e. L. Wallichii, Wedd. I.e. Procris 

 peduncularis, Wall. Cat. no. 4631 (name only) ; Royle, lUustr. t. 83. 

 P. obtusa, Royle, I.e. Elatostema ojpjpnsitifolium, Dalz. in Hook. 

 Journ. Bot. iii. 179 (1851). E. ovatum, Wight, le. t. 1985. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, 7500 ft., Mann, 1461 ! Caracroons : Buoa, 

 6000-7000 ft., Preuss, 1034 ! 



Nile Land. Abyssinia : near Asega, Schimper, 637 ! 



Also from India and Malaya to New Guinea and the PhiHppines. 



The three specimens recorded above are widely different in apjx?arance. The 

 Abyssinian are small plants less than 2 in. high, with a single slender unbranched 

 stem, and a few leaves. That from Fernando Po has several erect slender 

 branching leafy stems, 2-3 in. high, springing from a densely rooting creeping 

 underground stem. The Cameroons plant has tall erect rather stout stems, u[) 

 to 10 in. high, and is in every way a much larger plant. 



9. ELATOSTEMA, Forst. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 386. 



Flowers moncecions or dioecious, in generally dense bracteate 

 unisexual cymose heads ; receptacle, especially in the female, 

 generally ultimately discoid or lobed. Male : Perianth 4-5-partite ; 

 segments membranous or almost hyaline, slightly imbricated, 

 generally with a small dorsal mucro or appendage beneath the apex. 

 Stamens 4-5. Ovary rudiment small. Female : Perianth of 3-5 

 small segments, or obsolete. Staminodes small and scale-like, or 

 absent. Ovary erect, ovoid ; stigma sessile, penicillate, soon falling ; 

 ovule erect from the base. Achene ovate or ellipsoid, somewhat 

 compressed, invested at the base with the perianth (when present) ; 

 pericarp often striated or punctate, brown, thin. Seed conforming 

 to the pericarp ; testa membranous ; endosperm generally absent ; 

 cotyledons elliptic. — Annual or perennial herbs, more rarely woody 

 below, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves alternate by suppression of 

 one in each pair, sessile or shortly stalked, in two rows, unequal- 

 sided, the narrower side facing the top of the stem or branch, 

 generally acuminate or acute, base very unequal margin generally 

 serrate, rarely entire, usually 3-nerved, generally with numerous 

 linear cystoliths on the upper face. Stipules united, intrapetiolar, 

 entire, generally lanceolate. Inflorescences small, axillary, sub- 

 sessile or stalked, formed of congested dichotomous cymes the rhachis 

 of which unites to form the receptacle, which is surrounded by an 

 involucre of bracts ; inner bracts and bract eoles narrower and 

 smaller. Male flowers soon falling, sessile or stalked, each generally 

 invested by a rather broad bract. Female flowers generally stalked 



