280 cxxinD. URTiCACE^ (Rendle). [Elatostema, 



with a short appendage. Female heads smaller than the male and 

 in the monoecious shoots at the lower nodes, forming dense shortly 

 hairy rounded cushions 5 lin. or less in diam., outer bracts lanceolate 

 to linear-oblong, blunt, ciliolate, IJ lin. long, inner bracts narrower 

 and rather shorter ; flowers densely crowded ; perianth-segments 

 minute. Achene bright brown, ovoid-oblong, barely J lin. long ; 

 pericarp rough.— E. Preussii, Engl, in Engl. Jahrb. xxxiii. 126. 

 E. husseanum, H. Winkler in Engl. Jahrb. xli. 277 ? 



Upper Guinea. Gold Coast : Hills at Kibbi Akim. Johnson, 254 ! Fernando 

 Po : Clarence Peak, 4000 ft., Mann, 290 ! 631 ! Cameroons : Efulen, on 

 mountains at 2800 ft., Bates, 24S ! forest district west of Buea, Prevss^ 58G ; 

 Neii-Tegel, Winkler, 177 ? 



I have doubtfully included as a synonym E. bvsseamim, H. Winkler, of which 

 I have not seen a specimen. Judging from the description this has been drawn 

 up from a plant bearing young male inflorescences ; I do not understand the 

 description of the flower. Winkler makes no suggestion as to the affinity of 

 the species. 



Var. conranamun , Engl. I.e. Leaves obliquely oblong, acuminate, margin 

 almost entire or slightly crenate. 



Without indication of locality. 



3. E. thomense, Henriq. in Bolet. Soc. Brot. x. 163. A herb with 

 stem ascending from a rooting base, puberulous, branched, branches 

 20 in. long, leafy in the upper half. Leaves membranous, the 

 lowest small, the median sessile or subsessile, obliquely elliptic, 

 rather long-acuminate, tip |-f in. long, very rarely toothed, base 

 very unequal, almost wedge-shaped, margin (except in the lower 

 third) serrulate, l|-3 in. long, 7 lin. to 1 in. wide ; lateral nerves on 

 the broader side 6-8, the lowest very short, the second reaching 

 nearly to the middle of the blade, on the narrower side 5, the second 

 reaching the middle, upper face glabrous with scattered slender 

 linear cystoliths, the lower face hairy on the nerves, more or less 

 darkly dotted. Stipules 5 lin. long, lanceolate-linear. Heads of 

 male flowers shortly stalked, 2i-7 lin. broad, depressed, with an 

 involucre of several broadly lanceolate pilosulose ciliated bracts 

 (the upper heads small, 3-bracteate), bracteoles ovate to linear, 

 long-haired ; flowers short- or long-stalked (pedicel 2 lin. long) ; 

 perianth-segments irregularly mucronate beneath the apex, mucro 

 glabrous. Female heads smaller than the male, 2J lin. in diam., 

 .sessile ; bracteoles linear-s})athiilate, with long dense hairs ; pedicel 

 -J- lin. long : perianth-segments very small. Achenes very short- 

 stalked. 



Lower Guinea. Island of St. Thomas : Macambrara, Monte Cafe, at 2700- 

 4400 ft., Mollfr db Quintas. 



4. E. orient ale, Enql. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 164. Perennial; stems 

 numerous, succulent, ascending from a long slender and ultimately 

 woody rooting rhizome-like base a little over 1 lin. in diam., simple 



