296 cxxTiiD. URTiCACE-B (Kendle). [Dehregeasia. 



Yemen, 206 ; Schweinf . in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. App. ii. 147 ; Engl. 

 Hochgebirgsfl. Trop. Afr. 194. D. hypoleuca, Wedd. Monogr. 463, 

 t. 15 A, figs. 10, 11 ; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 591. Urtim hicolor, 

 Roxb. Hort. Beng. 67 (name only) and El. Ind. iii. 589. TJ . salicifolia, 

 Roxb. Hort. Beng. 67 (name only). Bcehmeria salkifolia, Don, 

 Prodr. 60. B. hypoleuca, Hochst. ex A. Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss, ii. 

 264 ; Ferret & Galin. Voy. Abyss, t. 17. Missiessya hypoleuca, 

 Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. 4me ser. i. 195. Morocarpus salicifoHvs, 

 Bl. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. ii. 157. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia : in shady rocky places on a mountain near Jenansa, 

 Schimpery 862 ! Anadehr, 7400 ft., Schimper, 780 ! Jeleukote, PetUy 93 ! 

 and without precise locality, Schimper ! 



Also in Arabia, Afghanistan and Western Himalaya. 



14. PARIETARIA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 392. 



Flowers polygamous, in small axillary cymes. Perianth of 

 hermaphrodite and male flowers deeply 4-lobed, more rarely 3-lobed, 

 segments valvate, of female flower less deeply lobed. Stamens as 

 many as the perianth-segments. Ovary free, rudimentary in the 

 male flower, glabrous ; style short or absent ; stigma densely peni- 

 cillate, deciduous ; ovule erect from the base. Achene enclosed 

 in the persistent enlarged perianth ; pericarp thinly crustaceous. 

 Seed conforming to the pericarp ; testa membranous ; albumen 

 present ; cotyledons ovate or oblong. — Annual or perennial herbs, 

 more rarely suffruticose, generally diffuse in habit, sometimes 

 scandent, often pubescent. Leaves alternate, stalked, entire, 3- 

 nerved or triplinerved, generally small, with numerous dot -like 

 cystoliths ; stipules absent. Cymules generally dense, in sessile 

 pairs in the leaf-axils ; bracts herbaceous, variously connate at the 

 base or free, sometimes forming an involucre round the fruit. 



Species about 10, widely dispersed in temperate and tropical regions. 



Annual or perennial, scandent. Ovary with a distinct 

 style remaining as an apiculus in the fruit. 



Leaves long-acuminate 1. P.laxiflora. 



Leaves shortly acuminate, blunt 2. P. ruwenzoriensis. 



Annual herb. Achene not apiculate 3. P. debilis. 



1. P. laxiflora, Engl, in Mildhraed, Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Zentr.- 

 Afr. Exped. ii. 191, emend. A scandent perennial in mountain 

 forest, 2J-8 ft. high, with slender curved elongated herbaceous shoots 

 which may become woody below and bear shorter spreading very 

 slender leafy branchlets ; internodes varying very much in length 

 from less than 1 in. to 4 J in., sparsely puberulous in the young 

 portion, soon becoming glabrous. Leaves alternate, sometimes 

 subopposite, stalked, ovate to elliptic-ovate, passing gradually 



