580 cxxxvi. URTICAOEJE, (J. D. Hooker.) [Bo<<hi . 



B. CUSPIDATA, 81., from Nepal. 



B. SPICIFLORA, Bl. (Caturus spiciflorus, Herb. Jacq. /., not of Linn,), East 

 Indies. 



B. HUGELIANA, Bl., East Indies, Hugel. 



B. SUBPERFORATA, Wedd. Monogr. 383 (Urtica subperforata, Wall.). 



35. CHAXKABAXNXA, Wight. 



A slender diffuse herb. Leaves opposite, toothed, 3-nerved ; stipules in 

 pairs large, orbicular, scarious, enclosing the young flower-clusters, per- 

 sistent. Floivers 4-rnerous, in axillary clusters; perianth, &c., as in Baeh- 

 meria, bufc stigma ovate fimbriate spreading. 



C. cuspidata, Wiglit Ic. t. 1981; Wedd. Monogr. 387, t. 12. C. 



squamigera, Wedd. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 218. Boehmeria squamigera, 

 Wedd. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 4, i. 203. Urtica squamigera, Wall. Cat. 

 4592. 



TROPICAL HIMALAYA; Garwhal, alt. 2-7000 ft., from Kumaon eastwards to Sikkim, 

 alf. 4-8000 ft. KHASIA HILLS, alt. 4-5000 ft. NILGHIBI HILLS, Wight, &c. 

 CEYLON, Thioaites. 



Stem rooting and branching, more or less pubescent, branches ascending. Leaves 

 \-l in., membranous, ovate, acute, serrate, base rounded or 'cuneate 3-nerved, glabrous 

 or sparsely pubescent above, more so beneath; petiole in..; stipules 4 at each 

 node, very conspicuous, brown when dry. Male fl. in the upper axils, shortly pedi- 

 celled ; sepals hairy, mucronate. Fern. fl. in dense clusters; bracteoles small, lan- 

 ceolate ; perianth hirsute, compressed. Achene' compressed, ovate, acute. Closely 

 resembles Droguetia diffusa in habit and foliage. 



36. POUXOLZXA, Gauz. 



Characters of Bcehmeria, but with the flowers in axillary clusters, never 

 in naked spikes, and the slender style jointed on to the top of the ovary and 

 deciduous. Species estimated at about 50, but reduceable to a very much 

 smaller number, all tropical, chiefly Asiatic. 



The Indian species of this genus are extraordinarily variable, and have been 

 inordinately multiplied by Wight and Bluuie, the former of whom, however, first 

 detected the fact overlooked by previous authors, that winged and wingless perianths 

 occurred in fruits of the same clusters. Bennett's descriptions of Wallich's species in 

 the " Flora Javae " are quite insufficient, and overlooked the facts that winged and 

 wingless fruits afforded no specific character, and that tetrandrous and pentandrous 

 flowers was a remarkably constant one ; it is further evident that he did not work 

 upon the original set of Wallich's plants in the Linnean Society, for the numbers and 

 habitats of some of these plants which he cites, on Wallich's authority, are not those 

 attached to the specimens in that Society's possession. Weddell does not appear to 

 have consulted Wallich's Herbarium, or he could not have confounded the northern 

 P. hirta (or quinquenervis) with the common Deccan species. I have been for- 

 tunate in finding in Wight's Herbarium types of all the species he figured in his 

 Icones. These were evidently published in great haste, at the very end of his Indian 

 career, and without due consideration ; in which respect his treatment of the genus is 

 a, rc-markable deviation from the standard of that invaluable work. 



Phenax pentandrus, Slume (P. Sonneratii, Wedd. ; I*ou7.olzi"a Sonneratii, Gaud.), 

 widely distributed tropical American plant closely allied to Pouzolzia, has been 

 collected in India (Madras?) by Sonnerat and by Heifer in Ti'nasseriln (Keto 

 Dittrib. 4584). It differs from Pouzolzia in the minute fern, perianth and con- 

 spicuously in the numei-ous broad imbricating scarious bracts which surround the 

 flowers. 



