Parietaria.] cxxiiid. urticace^ (Rendle). 299 



Aderbati and on Mount Selleiida, Dillon ; and without precise locality, Schimper^ 

 587! Eritrea: below Gheleb, 5500 ft., Schweinfurth, H)22 ! above Ciinda, 

 3000-5000 ft., Schweinfurth, 509. Nubia : below Erkowit, Brouv, 1195 ! 



Widely distributed in terajjcratc regions and on high lands in the tropics. 



15. FORSKOHLEA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 393. 



Flowers monoecious, embedded in wool within a more or less cam- 

 panulate involucre. Male flowers forming an outer ring, indefinite ; 

 perianth club-shaped in bud, splitting in flower and soinewhat 

 irregularly 3-lobed above, the middle lobe suberect or inflexed. 

 Stamen 1. Ovary-rudiment absent. Female flowers 1 or more in 

 the centre of the involucre ; perianth absent. Ovary straight ; 

 stigma filiform, shortly hairy on one side, persisting for some time ; 

 ovule erect from the base. Achene enclosed in the involucre and 

 enveloped in wool, elliptic-ovate, compressed, often apiculate ; peri- 

 carp tough. Seed conforming to the pericarp; testa membranous ; 

 albumen scanty or absent ; cotyledons broad, flattened. — Herbs, 

 sometimes becoming woody at the base, or shrubby, often more or 

 less hispid. Leaves alternate, stalked, toothed, triplinerved or 

 penninerved, often whitish-tome ntose beneath, and rough on the 

 upper face with dot-like cystoliths ; stipules lateral, free. In- 

 volucres generally several sessile at the nodes, bearing long silky 

 hairs on the outside ; bracts generally 3-6, free or connate below, 

 the upper portion often more or less expanded. Male flowers stalked, 

 generally projecting slightly ; female sessile, the stigmas only pro- 

 jecting. — Caidheja, Forsk. Fl. ^Egypt.-Arab. 82. 



Species 7 or 8, throughout Africa including the West-ern Islands, Arabia to 

 Western India, one in S.E. Spain. 



Limb of involucral bracts acute, erect in fruit. 



Leaves obovate or rhomboid, obtuse 1. F. ienacis.tima. 



Leaves ovate or elliptic-ovate. 



Bracts lanceolate-spathulate, very acute. Ix^aves 



blackish when dried 2. F. hereroenf^is. 



Bracts narrowly obovate above, shortly acute. 



Leaves green when dried ... ... ... 3. F. Eevii. 



Limb of involucral bracts blunt, ample, spreading in 

 fruit, 

 ly^af-teeth acute, blade whitish-tomentose beneath 4. F. cavdidn 



Leaf-teeth blunt, green on both sides or sometimes 



thinly tomentose beneath 6. F. viridi.f. 



1. F. tenacissima, Lhin. Mnnt. 72. A herb becoming woody 

 below or shrubby, with a stout perennial root, from a few inches to 

 2 ft. high, diffusely branched from the base : branches ascending, 

 hispid with spreading spiny and hooked hairs and shortly tomentose 

 between, often reddish, leafy with short internodes. Leaves rounded, 



