Ifl/pO<h>mattU)u.^ LXX. RUBIACKiE (hIERN). 241 



or narrowly elliptical, narrowed to an acute or apiculate apex, wedo-e- 

 shaped at the subsessile base, more or less scabrous above, rather paler 

 and somewhat hairy beneath, ranging up to 4 by 1 in., margins 

 scabrous, veins rather slender ; stipules with a short broad sheath and 

 about 5-7 equalling or longer setae, hairy. Flowers ranging up to 

 i in. long, numerous, crowded in dense sessile terminal and axillary 

 beads, exceeded by the uppermost spreading leaves. Calyx-teeth 4, 

 lanceolate, acute, ciliate, rather longer than the ovary ; tube hairy 

 above. Corolla elongate-funnel-shaped, ' glabrous except the tip of 

 the lobes. Anthers exserted. Stigma subcapitate, bilobed. Fruit 

 bursting around the base ; cocci dehiscing upwards inside from the 

 base leaving the septum free. — H. ampliatum, A. Rich. 1. c. 349. 

 Mitracarpus sjphcerostigma, Hochst. in Hb. Schimp. Abyss, i. n. 100. 

 M. ampliaius, Hochst. 1. c. iii. n. 1721." Sjpermacoce amjpliafa, Hook. f. 

 ex Oliv. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. xxix. p. 88, t. 54, excl. fig. 4-6. 

 S. sphcerostigma, Vatke in Linnasa xl. p. 196 (1876). S. Uuelliop,, T. 

 Thorns, in Speke, Joum., App. p. 636 (1863), non DC. 



irile Xiand. Abyssinia, Schimper ! Hildehrandt ! Quartin Dillon ! Plowden .' 

 Cordofan, Kotschy ! Cienkowsky Gallabat, Schwewfurth ! LTnyoro, Speke and. Grant 1 ; 

 Djur-land, Schweinfurtk ! 



74. OCTODON, Thonn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 145. 



Calyx-tube turbinate or elongate, compressed ; lobes of the short 

 limb 4 or 8, rounded. Corolla funnel-shaped, membranous ; throat 

 glabrous; lobes 4, revolute, setulose at the tip, valvate in the bud. 

 Stamens 4, inserted at the throat of the corolla, glabrous ; anthers 

 linear or oblong, fixed by the back. Disk inconspicuous. Ovary 

 2-celled ; style filiform; stigma small, capitate ; ovules solitary, attached 

 below the middle of the septum. Fruit dicoccous. Seeds linear or 

 oblong, erect, sulcate on the ventral face. Radicle inferior.— Annual 

 erect herbs with opposite sessile narrow leaves, sheathing stipules 

 adnate to the base of the leaves and terminated by 1 or several setee, 

 and small hermaphrodite flowers densely crowded in heads within the 

 stipular sheaths of the upper leaves and surrounded by numerous 

 filiform bracteoles. 



A genus peculiar to this Flora. 

 Calyx-teeth 8. Anthers just exserted. Setse of the stipules 



solitary (except of the floral leaves) 1. O.filifolium. 



Calyx-teeth 4. Anthers much exserted. Setae of the stipules 



several .- 2. 0. sefosum. 



1. O. fillfolium, Schum. et Thonn. Beskr. Guin. PI. p. 74. Erect 

 stiff annual, robust or slender, glabrous or very nearly so, 1-2 feet 

 high, simple or branched. Stem and branches slender, subterete or at 

 the apex somewhat compressed. Leaves filiform-subulate, sessile, 1^-4 

 in. long, adnate at the base to the sheath of the stipules, which is 

 about ^-\ in. long and is abruptly terminated on each side by a fili- 

 form seta of about the same length; floral stipules dilated, terminated 

 by about 3 short subulate setsB. Flowers 10-20 together, crowded 



VOL. III. 



