140 xcvni. ACANTHACE^ (clarke). \^Neiiracanthus. 



9. N. Robecchiiy C. B. Clarke. Young parts white stellate- 

 tomentose. Leaves Ij by § in., oblong-elliptic, when mature sparingly- 

 hairy, margin wavy-crenate, tip subobtuse, base tapering; petiole 

 0-J in. long. Sterile spikes scorpioid, appearing as flexuous, many- 

 prickled pubescent spines ; fertile spike | in. long, strobilate, few- 

 flowered; bract J in. long, subquadrate, suddenly spine-tipped. Calyx 

 J in. long, woolly, of 2 pieces; anticous oblong 2-nerved, scarcely 

 2-toothed; posticous ovate, 3-nerved, microscopically 3-toothed. Capsule 

 J in. long, narrow-ovoid, acute, 2-seeded. Seeds densely woolly with 

 hygroscopic hairs. — Leucoharleria Rohecchii, Lindau in Ann. Istit. Bot. 

 Roma vi. (1896) 78, and in Engl, k Prantl, Pflanzenfam. Nachtr. 

 zu ii.-iv. 300. 



M-lle Xiand. Somaliland : Marehan, BobeccM, 238a ! 239a ! 258. 



Also in Arabia. 



36. BARLERIA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 1091. 



Calyx of 4 distinct segments, large ; anticous segment of 2 sepals, 

 connate quite or three-quarters of the way to the tip ; posticous segment 

 subsimilar ; 2 lateral segments within, narrow, usually much smaller. 

 Corolla yellow or blue ; tube cylindric or the upper part funnel-shaped ; 

 limb of 5 subequal segments or 2-lipped ; anticous segment wholly 

 within in bud. Stamens 2, complete ; filaments stout glabrous or nearly 

 so ; anthers exserted, linear-oblong, parallel, muticous ; pollen globose, 

 honeycombed ; 2 (or 3) imperfect short stamens added, with anthers 

 rudimentary or small, very rarely perfecting a little pollen. Ovary 

 glabrous, except the tip, with 2 (or 1) ovules in each cell ; disc often 

 large, cup-shaped ; style loDg, glabrous, rarely hairy towards the base ; 

 stigmas 2, short, linear, subequal, often subconfluent. Capsule either 

 ovoid, 2-seeded, or oblong-ellipsoid, 4-seeded ; seeds shaggy, usually all 

 over, hairs (often in bundles) more or less elastic on applying water. — 

 Leaves entire, without prickles or teeth (in the Tropical African species). 

 Inflorescence (when fully developed) of axillary scorpioid cymes, often 

 condensed almost to a head, or shortened to few (or 1 ) flowers when the 

 inflorescence appears like a simple spike ; bracts 1 fertile, 1 sterile, as 

 simple or branched spines, or entire, or toothed, or pinnatifid leaves; 

 bracteoles 0. — Somalia, Oliv. in Hook Ic. t. 1528. 



Species 120, mostly in Africa and Tropical Asia, a few in Tropical America. 



In the fully-developed axillary raceme, the lowest pair of bracts are opposite, sup- 

 porting a terminal shortly pedicelled flower without bracteoles ; from the axil of one 

 bract a shoot carries two similarly opposite bracts which may support another flower 

 or (not rarely) terminate the raceme. Where the raceme is many-flowered it is often 

 very dense, and of each pair of bracts the sterile one is twisted on one side. In 

 some common species (as in B. Prionitis) the inflorescence is so completely a simple 

 spike that the bracts have been regarded as bracteoles ; and it is merely by analogy 

 that they are here called bracts. Sterile inflorescences may, in most species, carry 2, 3 

 or 4 bracts, according as the second joint is more or less evolved. In most of the 

 invariably 2-8eeded species, of the subgenera Frionitis and Somalia (hithertQ 



