112 xcviii. ACANTHACE^ (clarke). [^ScUrochiton. 



obtuse; petiole i in. long. Heads IJ in. in diam., about 8-flowered, 

 lax ; pedicels ^V in. long, minutely pubescent ; bract at base of the 

 pedicel \ in. long, ovate ; bracteoles (close to calyx) J in. long, elliptic 

 acute. Posticous sepal exceeding | in. in length, tip oblong Jy in. wide, 

 obtuse, toothed ; 2 anticous sepals |- in. long, lanceolate, acute, some- 

 times with a lateral tooth ; 2 interior sepals nearly as the anticous. 

 Corolla 1 in. long. Anthers broad-oblong, thinly hairy. 



XHozaml). X>i8t. British Central Africa ; Nyasaland ; Masuku Plateau, 6500- 

 7000 ft., Whyte, 267 ! 



28. CROSSANDRA, Salisb. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 1094. 



Calyx 5-partite to the base ; 2 anticous segments oblong, acute, 

 1-nerved ; posticous segments broader, 2-nerved, often 2-toothed ; 

 2 inmost segments lanceolate or linear. Corolla orange-yellow or 

 light-red ; tube long linear, much longer than the limb ; limb of 5 

 segments, imbricate in bud, turned to one side in the expanded flower. 

 Stamens 4, subsimilar ; filaments short, glabrous ; anthers 1-celled, 

 included in the linear corolla-tube, oblong, muticous ; pollen oblong, 

 usually narrow^- oblong, square-headed, with 3 (often very slender) 

 longitudinal chinks. Ovary oblong, with 2 ovules in each cell, 

 glabrous or scarcely hispid at the tip ; style glabrous or thinly hairy ; 

 stigma dilated, obscurely 2-fid, more or less trumpet-mouthed. Capsule 

 oblong-ellipsoid, usually 4-seeded; seeds covered with tufts of hairs or 

 adpressed scales fringed with tufts of hairs each spirally thickened 

 within and slightly hygroscopic. — Shrubs. Leaves entire. Flowers in 

 strobilate, often long-peduncled spikes; bract large, ovate, pubescent 

 or papery, subglabrous ; bracteoles linear or lanceolate, as long as the 

 calyx (except in C. pungens). 



Species 14, African or Mascarene, 1 of these extending to India. 

 In many genera of AcanthacecB, the two anticous calyx-segments are more or less 

 connate, often nearly or quite to the tip, forming a 2-nerved, sometimes apparently 

 simple segment. In Crossandra, in the posticous segment, the central nerve 

 has died quite away, occasionally a trace near the base remains, while 2 lateral nerves 

 are developed so that the tip of the segment is 2-spined or more or less 2-lohed ; its 

 state might be compared to that of the palea in grasses ; and it so extraordinarily 

 simulates the much more common connate 2-sepalous anticous calyx-segment that it is 

 not strange that Bentham (in Gen. PI.) and Lindau in Engler's Pflanzenfam. have 

 taken it for the anticous calyx-segment. 



* Bract herbaceous, ovate, short-acuminate, hairy at least 

 on the margin. 

 Bract with several subulate teeth on the margin. 

 Spikes peduncled. 



Stem leafy ; corolla orange, tube ^ in. long . 1. C. GreenstocJcii. 



Stem short; corolla yellow, tube 1\ in. long . 2. C.fiaca. 

 Spikes sessile. Leaves all close to the spike . . 3. C. stenostacTiya. 



Bract with a mucronate or spinous tip, but no long 

 teeth on the margin. 

 Spike nearly glabrous ; bract 3-1 -toothed . . 4. C. trideniata. 

 Spike hairy. 



