04 xcviii. ACANTHACE^ (clarke). [Blcpkaris. 



25. BLEPHAKIS, Juss. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 1089. 



Calyx sub-4-partite to the base ; 2 anticous segments connate nearly 

 to the tip ; posticous segment lanceolate ii-nerved, usually longer than 

 the anticous ; 2 interior segments narrow, long or short. Corolla : 

 posticous lip 0, replaced by a horny rim ; anticous lip nearly flat, ^5-5- 

 lobed, blueish, white, or fading to yellowish. Stamens 4, subsimilar ; 

 anthers 1 -celled, narrow-oblong, muticous, fringed with white hairs near 

 the slit ; filaments of 2 anticous stamens more flattened with rudiments 

 of missing anther more developed ; pollen longish-ellipsoid, with a few 

 very narrow longitudinal smooth chinks not reaching the poles. Ovary 

 with 2-1 ovules in each cell, glabrous ; style glabrous (rarely with a few 

 thin hairs below), branches 2, lanceolate ; at the apex of the ovary on 

 the posticous face ,are 2 hollows filled with glands. Capsule ellipsoid, 

 flattened, woody, shining-brown, 2- (rarely 4-) seeded ; seeds covered 

 with rope-like hair-bundles, which on applying water unroll into very 

 long 1-celled hairs each furnished with a spiral band within. — Harsh 

 prickly, or smooth slender, undershrubs without stellate or gland-tipped 

 hairs, except in B. pungens. Leaves (in all Tropical African species, 

 except B. tetrasticha) by the adjacent pairs being drawn together appear- 

 ing in whorls of 4, outer pair in each whorl often smaller, sometimes 

 very much smaller, or reduced and almost resembling stipules. Spikes of 

 flowers strobilate ; bract green, ovate or obovate, veined, nearly always 

 spinous ; bracteoles 2 or 0, linear, rarely lanceolate, 1-nerved, acute ; 

 in many spikes all the bracts except the highest sterile, so that these 

 are commonly described as having solitary flowers. 



Species 50, nearly all African, many in South Africa, a few extending through 

 Arabia and the Orient region to India. 



* Leaves not spinous on the margin (or with sometimes a 

 few small spines, in 6. B. affinis, 14. B. linaricBfolia, 

 and 15. B. Asteracanthtis). 

 Bracteoles none. Every flower with 3-6 sterile bracts 

 below it. (Note that the true flower-bract is 

 next the two connate anticous calyx-segments. 

 The bracteoles, when present, are lateral, thin- 

 textured, except the midrib). 

 One-flowered branches solitary. 



Leaves 1-2^ in. long, occasionally 4 in. long. 

 Bract \-^ in. long. 



Bract spathulate or obovate, tip triangular 



obtuse . . . . . . \. B. hoerhaamcefolia. 



Bract broadly obovate tip lanceolate re- 

 curved . . . . . . 2. B. pinguior. 



Bract \ in. long ; corolla more than 1 in. long 3. B. cuanzensis. 

 Bract f in. long, elliptic-lanceolate . . b. B. glumacea. 



Leaves 4-7 in. long ; 1-flowered spikes pedicelled 4. B, hirtella. 

 One-flowered branches approximated or in heads. 

 Leaves linear ; inmost calyx-segments nearly as 



long as the others . . . . . 6. .B. affinis. 



