Bcehmeria.] JXXfiiD. urticace^ (Kendk). 285 



1. B. platyphylla, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal, 60. A .shrub 3-15 ft . high ; 

 branches soft, glabrous or more or less strigosc. Leaves membranous 

 when dry, long- or short-stalked, mostly, opposite, broadly ovate 

 to elliptic or suborbicular, sides equal or somewhat unequal, apex 

 acuminate, base cordate, rounded or blunt, margin coarsely toothed 

 throughout or sometimes entire at the base, 3-9 in. long, lJ-6 in. 

 wide, 3-nerved, the two lateral nerves ascending to within one-third 

 or one-fourth of the length from the apex, secondary nerves spreading, 

 somewhat conspicuous beneath, upper face sparsely hispid with 

 appressed white hairs, densely dotted with cystoliths, lower face 

 glabrate or pubescent especially on the conspicuous nerves and veins, 

 with generally a small glandular area on either side of the ba.se of 

 the midrib ; petiole varying very much in length, from ^-6 in., 

 generally slender. Stipules triangular-acuminate, 3-5 lin. long, 

 puberulons on the back especially on the well-developed midrib. 

 Spikes usually exceeding the leaves, generally unisexual, sometimes 

 androgynous, simple or, the male and androgynous, sparingly branched, 

 slender, flexuous, solitary or the males sometimes fascicled in the 

 leaf-axils, clusters separated, rhachis generally puberulous. Male 

 clusters fewer -flowered than the female, 1-lJ lin. in diara., flowers 

 with very short stalks, bud depressed-globose, § lin. in diam. ; peri- 

 anth 4-partite, puberulous, segments acute, with a short blunt 

 subapical mucro. Female clusters 1-lJ lin. in diam., up to 2 lin. 

 when in fruit ; bracts minute, brown, scarious, ovate or lanceolate, 

 acuminate, J lin. long or less ; perianth subcompressed, ellipsoid or 

 ovoid, about h lin. long, with a short neck and 2-dentate mouth, 

 puberulous ; style exceeding the perianth in length ; ovary sessile. 

 Fruit barely 1 lin. long, broadly ellipsoid, subcompressed with a short 

 neck, puberulous.— Wedd. Monogr. Urtic. 364 (inch var. macro- 

 stachya, 367), and in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 210, 211 ; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. 

 Ind. V. 578 : De Wild. & Th. Durand in BuU. Herb. Boiss. 2me 

 ser. i. 50 ; Th. k Hel. Durand, Sy 11. Fl. Congol. 513 ; Engl, in Mildbraed, 

 Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.-Afi'. Exped. 1907-8, ii. 191. B. 

 caudata, Poir. in Bonpl. Jard. Malm. t. 15. B. niacrostachya, Wedd. 

 in Ann. Sci. Nat, 4me ser. i. 199. B. mauritiana , Wedd. I.e. C200. 

 B. ivightiana, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. ii. 217. SplUgerbcrn 

 macrostachya, Wight, Icon. t. 1977. Urtica caiidata, Poir. Encycl. 

 iv. 640. Urtica inacrostachija, Wall. Cat. 4582 partly (name 

 only;. 



Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone, Smythe, 102 Southern Nigeria : Oban, 

 Talbot, 686 ! Fernando Po, Mann, 209 ! Cameroun.s, Prcuss, 877 ! 



Mozamb. Distr. German East Africa: Usambara ; Dereuia. Scfujfhr, 72! 

 Amani, Herb. Amani, 435 ! Nyasaland : Ma.'iuka PIat<>au, ()500-7(KK> ft., 

 Whyte ! Nyika Plateau, Whyte, 210 ! Namasi, Cameron ! Mount C'hirad- 

 zulu, Whyte ! and without precise locality, Buchanan, 755 ! 



A most variable species. It is difficult to delimit varieties, but the following 

 represent striking groups of six^oiracns, which however tend to grade one into 

 the other. 



