Plecospermum.] LXVII. URTICACE^. 401 



Stamens inflected in bud ; styles two, more or less connate at 

 the base. 



Female fl. numerous, spicate 6. Morits. 



Female fl. solitary 7. Streblus. 



Stamens not inflected in bud ; style one. 



Flowers on the inside of a hollow, globose, or pear-shaped 



receptacle 8. Ficus. 



Flowers on the outside of a fleshy receptacle ; in globose 

 or cylindrical heads. 

 Flowers dioicous ; perianths of 4, free, not connate seg- 

 ments or leaves .9. Cudrania. 



Flowers monoicous ; male perianth of 2-4 segments or 

 leaves ; female perianths tubular connate with each 



other 10. Artocarpus. 



Stamens not inflected in bud ; styles two, more or less connate 

 at the base. 



Flowers polygamous ; ovary 1 -celled; fruit fleshy. 



Perianth deciduous ; stamens shorter than perianth . 11. Celtis. 

 Perianth persistent ; stamens longer than perianth . 12. Sponia. 

 Flowers commonly bisexual ; ovary 1-2-celled ; fruit a 



winged samara . . . . . . .13. Ulmus. 



1. PLECOSPERMUM, Trecul. 



Tree or shrub with alternate entire leaves. Flowers dioicous, collected 

 in dense globular heads. Male fl. : perianth 4-fid, segments imbricate. 

 Stamens free j filaments inflexed in aestivation ; anthers globose, 2-celled. 

 Ovary rudimentary. Female fl. : perianth gamophyllous, with a narrow 

 4-dentate mouth. Ovary free, 1-celled, with a solitary pendulous ovule ; 

 style filiform, exserted ; stigma papillose. Fertile nuts ; consolidated with 

 the succulent perianth-segments and abortive ovaries into an irregular few- 

 seeded berry-like syncarpium ; seed exalbuminous. 



1. P. spinosum, Trecul; DC. Prodr. xvii. 233; Wight Ic. t. 1963. 

 Syn. Batis spinosa, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 762 ; Trophis spinosa, Willd. 

 (partly). 



A large shrub or small tree, armed with straight axillary spines ; 

 branchlets glabrous, only extremities and inflorescence pubescent. Leaves 

 glabrous, short-p etiolate, oval elliptic or obovate, obtuse or acute, entire, 

 2-3 in. long, lateral nerves and reticulate veins indistinct. Flower-heads 

 yellowish, axillary, solitary or 2-3 together, on peduncles as long as heads, 

 the male heads J in. diam., the female heads smaller while in flower, but 

 enlarging in fruit to about J in. Male fl. : perianth-segments obtuse or 

 emarginate, hairy outside. Stamens inserted around a hairy rudimentary 

 ovary, inflexed in bud, exserted afterwards. Perianths of female fl. con- 

 nate into a pubescent globose head, the orifice of each perianth indistinctly 

 4-toothed, and a single filiform papillose style protruding from it. Fruit 

 a compound irregularly-shaped 1-2-seeded berry, J in. diam., the other 

 ovaries being abortive. 



Nepal, Rohilkhand (Salt range, rare, on the top of mountains at 3000 ft. 

 J. L. S.) South India, Ceylon. Fl. Feb.-April. Bark fibrous. 



2c 



