Pilea.] cxxxvi. URTICACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 555 



NILGTTIKI Mrs., in the higher ranges, Wight, &c. CEYLON ; Centrtil Province, alt. 

 5-6000 ft. DISTRIB. Java. 



Stem 4-18 in., stout or slender. Leaves 1-3 in., flaccid, very variable in breadth, 

 base rounded or subacute ; petiole usually about half the length of the blade ; stipules 

 triangular. Cymes shorter or longer than the leaves, erect ; male sepals broad, 

 spurred; fern. fl. in small clusters or open panic-led cymes. Achene ovoid, straight, 

 about -J-jj. in. long, sometimes hardly longer than the perianth. I find it difficult to 

 distinguish between this and more glabrous forms of P. umbrosa, to which Weddell 

 has referred some of the Himalayan specimens. Except by the coarse serratures and 

 small stipules, it is not easily distinguished from P. bracteosa. Weddell is my 

 authority for P. Hugelii being a synonym. Urtica obesa, Wallich, referred by 

 Weddell to P. umbrosa, being quite glabrous, is, I think, rather referable here, and 

 perhaps to the following variety. 



VAR. microphylla ; leaves 4-6 in. deeply obtuselv serrate, petiole 2-4 in., cymes 

 sessile or shortly peduncled. Nilghiris, in the Ochterlony Valley, King ; Courtallam, 

 Wight. 



VAR. ? Soylei; very small, stem slender, leaves very few rounded ovate, sparsely 

 hairy above, serratures few large. Procris racemosa, Hoyle III. t. 83, f. 1. Kumaon 

 and Garwbal, alt. 8-10,000 ft,, Eoyle, Duthie. ? Sikkim, J. D. H. This looks like 

 a depauperated form of high elevations. I have alluded to it under P. ap- 

 proximata it may be a distinct species, but better specimens are wanted. Weddell 

 at the end of Procris, refers it to Pilea Wightii, but the synonym is not taken up under 

 that species. 



11. P. stipulosa, Miguel in Zoll. Syst. Verz. 102; Fl. Ind.Bat. i. ii. 



236 ; dioecious, glabrous, or leaves very sparsely hairy, leaves 3-4 in. long- 

 petioled elliptic or oblong-ovate acute or acuminate 3-nerved coarsely serrate 

 or toothed base cuneate or rounded, stipules large oblong, peduncles very 

 short, fern, sepals subequal orbicular, achenes minute smooth. Wedd. 

 Monogr. 230. P. petiolaris, Wedd. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 4, i. 186. P. 

 angulata, Blume Mus. Sot. ii. 55; Thwaites Enum. 259 ; ^Wedd. in DC. 

 Prodr. xvi. i. 131 (excl. Khasia <Sf Sikkim). Urtica angulata, Blume 

 Bijd. 494. U. stipulosa, Miq. PI. Jungh. 28. 



CEYLON, Walker, Thwaites (C.P. 2184). DISTRIB. Java. 



Tall rather stout species with the habit of P. umbrosa, but glabrous or with a 

 very few hairs on the upper surface of the leaves, large green stipules and equal 

 orbicular female sepals like those of P. Hookeriana. Thwaites refers Blume' s P. 

 hygrophila to it, no doubt rightly as far as the Ceylon specimens of that plant are 

 concerned ; he describes it as very variable. Weddell refers Sikkim^ and Khasia 

 specimens collected by me to this species, but none of these have the equal fern, 

 sepals. Wright's Looclioo plant, referred to stipulosa by Miquel, differs in the dorsal 

 sepal of the female being as long as the achene. 



12. P. bracteosa, Wedd. Monogr. 245; DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 134: 

 glabrous or leaves with a few sparse hairs, leaves 2-4 in. long petioled 

 elliptic ovate or elliptic-lanceolate caudate-acuminate serrate serratures 

 shallow often apiculate 3 nerved, base rounded or cuneate, stipule* large ob- 

 long persistent, peduncles long, fern, dorsal seP a ^ longest, achenes minute 

 nearly smooth edges acute. ? P. oxyodon, Wedd. Monogr. 222 ; DC. I. c. 

 126. 



TEMPERATE HIMALAYA ; from Nepal, WaVich, to Mishmi, alt. 4-7000 ft. 

 KHASIA HILLS, alt. 3-5000 ft,, Griffith, &c. Munnipore, alt. 5-8000 ft.,' Clarke. 



Stein 1-2 ft., sometimes rather woody below and often wnrted (by disease). 

 Leaves usually small, reticulate beneath, base sometimes notched ; petiole |-2 in. ; 

 stipules 5~iy in. Cyme* variable; peduncle usually very slender. Achene -J^ in., 

 straight, with an obscure intrainargiual ridge. The fern, perianth distinguishes this 



