Debregeasia.] cxxiiid. urticace^ (Rendle). 296 



13. DEBREOEASIA, Gaud. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 390. 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious in small dense capitate clusters. 

 Male : Perianth 4-partite, more rarely 3- or 5-partite, segments ovate, 

 valvate, bud depressed-globose. Stamens as many as the perianth- 

 segments. Ovary rudiment more or less ellipsoid, glabrous or 

 woolly at the base. Female : Perianth ventricose-tubular, ovoid 

 or obovoid, contracted and minutely toothed at the mouth, becoming 

 succulent in fruit. Ovary straight, enveloped by the perianth ; style 

 absent or rarely short ; stigma penicillate ; ovule erect from the base. 

 Achene enclosed in and partly adnate to the succulent perianth ; 

 pericarp crustaceous. Seed conforming to the pericarp ; testa mem- 

 branous ; albumen copious or scanty ; cotyledons small, broad. 

 — Shrubs. Leaves alternate, stalked, serrate, 3-nerved, upper face 

 often rough, lower generally with a white or ashy tomentum ; stipules 

 joined into a single axillary structure, 2-fid. Flowers in globose 

 axillary clusters, which are sessile or arranged in sessile or stalked 

 cymes ; bracts scarious, in the female minute ; female receptacle 

 somewhat thickened. 



Species about 12, in India, Malaya, and Eastern Asia, one in Abyssinia, 

 Arabia and Afghanistan. 



1. D. salicifolia, Rendle. A large shrub, erect, branched ; branch- 

 lets slender, erect or ascending, leafy and white tomentose above, 

 glabrescent with warm red-brown cortex below. Leaves shortly 

 stalked, stiffly membranous or subcoriaceous when dry, narrowly 

 lanceolate, apex tapering acuminate, base obtuse, margin serrulate, 

 3 to 5 or 6 in. long, J-1 in. wide, 3-nerved, the lateral basal nerves 

 slender failing about the middle of the leaf and anastomosing with 

 the delicate upper nerves, cross-unions regular, parallel, upper face 

 sparsely hairy when young, soon becoming glabrous, scabrid, and 

 often nigulose, lower face white-tomentose ; petiole J-J in. long, 

 slender, tomentose. Stipules glumaceous, brown, linear-lanceolate, 

 2-fid at the apex, 3-4 lin. long, hairy on the two prominent nerves, 

 soon falling. Heads of flowers about the size of a pea, male, female, 

 or sometimes androgynous, solitary or 2-4 in the leaf -axils, sessile or 

 shortly stalked. Male heads few-flowered, larger than the female ; 

 perianth a little over 1 lin. long, campanulate below, divided about 

 half-way down into 4 broadly ovate spreading segments, white- 

 tomentose on the outside ; stamens exceeding the perianth ; ovar\' 

 rudiment blunt, glabrous. Female heads many-flowered ; flowers much 

 smaller than the male, subtended by small brown scarious bracteoles, 

 narrowly obovoid. Fruiting heads yellowish, globular, 2-3 lin. in 

 diam., sometimes uniting in pairs ; berries about i lin. long, tipped 

 with the dried remains of the stigma. — D. bicolor, Wedd. in DC\ 

 Prodr. xvi. i. 236"; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 1148; Deflers, Voy. 



