ELATOSTEMA. ] URTICACE.E. 127 



7. ELATOSTEMA, Forst., Fl. Brit. Ind. V, 562. 



Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves alternate or with sometimes 

 a minute leaf sub-opposite to the normal leaf, distichous, sessile 

 or sub-sessile, usually very oblique and unequal-sided, 3-nerved 

 at or near the base ; stipules lateral or intrapetiolar. Flowers 

 very minute, crowded on sessile or peduncled unisexual usually 

 involucrate receptacles ; bracts oblong or ovate, the outer some- 

 times with a dorsal spur or horn, bases nearly free or more or less 

 confluent in a fleshy circular or lobed disk, the tips usually projecting 

 from its margin ; bracteoles densely crowded, those of the male 

 heads usually oblong, of the females spathulate ; florets often 

 in clusters, each cluster surrounded by a partial bract, giving the 

 head a lobed appearance. MALE flowers. Sepals 4 or 5, two or 

 more usually tubercled or spurred on the back. Stamens 4 or 5, 

 inflexed in bud. PisfiUode minute. FEM. flowers : Sepals 3-5, 

 very minute, much shorter than ovary, persistent. Staminodes 

 minute or none. Om-ry straight, .stigma penicillate, ovule erect. 

 Fruit a minute ellipsoid or fusiform usually ribbed achene subtended 

 by the very minute perianth. Seed, usually exalbuminous, testa 

 membranous, cotyledons ovate or semiterete. Species about 50, 

 tropics of the Old World except in Australia. 



E. sessile, Forst. Char. Gen. 106, VAR. polycephala, Hk. /. in 

 F. B. 1. V, 563 ; Collett FL Siml 466. Procris "punctata, B.-Ham. 

 in Don 1 rod. 61. 



1-2 ft., often bent at the joints, prostrate and rooting below. 

 e or nearly so, membranous, 4-8 in. long, obliquely 

 oblanceolate or oblong, coarsely serrate, the tip caudate, bright 

 green when dry, cystoliths abundant on upper surface. Receptacles 

 solitary or 2-3 together, J-J in. diam., the males sessile, the fern, 

 shortly stalked and without involucral bracts ; bracteoles very 

 minute, villous, hyaline. Achenes very minute, ellipsoid, acute 

 at both ends, ribbed. 



Dehra Dun, in shady ravines. DISTRIB. : Himalaya from the Punjab 

 eastwards and up to 8,000 ft. ; also in Assam, and southwards to 

 the Nilgiri Hills and Ceylon ; extending to trop. Africa, the Malay 

 and Pacific Islands, China and Japan. 



