130 URTICAGEM. [BOEHMERIA,. 



4. B. scabrella, Gaud, in Freyc. Voy. 500 ; C. B. Clarke in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. XV, 124 ; i rain Beng. PL 964 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. 

 636, B, platyphylla var scabrella, Wedd. ; F. B. L V, 573 ;: 

 Watt, E. D. Urtica scabrella, Roxb. Hi, 581. 



A shrub with soft glabrous or strigose branches. Leaves usually 

 opposite, 3^7 in. long, broadly ovate obovate or sub -orbicular, 

 acuminate or cuspidate, sharply serrate with triangular teeth, usually 

 rugose and lacunose beneath ; base rounded or cordate, 3-nerved ; 

 petioles -4 in. long ; stipules lanceolate, acute. Flowers in small 

 globose clusters on slender erect spikes. Male spikes crowded in 

 th^ lower axils, the female spikes usually solitary, net exceeding the 

 terminal leaves. MALE FLOWERS : Sepals 4, ovate, acuminate, 

 FEM. FLOWERS : Perianth ^ in. long, pubescent, shortly contracted 

 round the base of the persistent style into a small 4-toothed mouth. 

 Achenes compressed, shining, closely invested by the turgid per- 

 sistent perianth. 



Dehra Dun and eastwards along the Sub-Himalayan tract. DISTRIB. : 

 More or less throughout India from the outer Himalayan ranges ; 

 also in Ceylon. 



B. Nivea, Gaud. ; Brandis For. Fl. 402 ; F. B. 1. V\ 576 ; 

 Viatl E. D. ; in Agril. Ledger No. 15 (1898) ; Comm. Prod. Ind. 

 143 ; Gamble Man. 657 ; Prain Beng. PL 964 : Cooke FL Bomb, 

 ii, 637. Urtica nivea, L. This is the ^Well-known rheea or China 

 grass, a native of China, Japan and the Malay Islands. It yields 

 a most valuable fibre and has been cultivated for several years 

 in various parts of India. The expense, however, involved in its 

 cultivation, and the difficulties met with in the extraction and 

 preparation of the fibre have hitherto kept it in the background 

 as a marketable fibre plant. 



B. Tenacissima, Gaud. ( Urtica tenacissima, Roxb. ) is regarded 

 by most authors as a tropical variety of the above, differing cheifly 

 by having the under surface of its leaves green instead of pure white. 

 It is found wild in the Malay Peninsula and its native name is 

 rdmi. 



9. POUZOLZIA, Gaud, ; FL Brit, Ind. V, 580. 



Herbs or undershrubs. Leaves alternate or the lower, rarely 

 all, opposite, usually entire, 3-nerved at the base, smaller upwards,. 



