ACANTHACE^: 365 



J. PROCUMBENS, L. is a small very common herb 

 with procumbent branches and small ovate leaves. The 

 spikes are cylindrical, hairy, and with very narrow bracts. 



J. DIFFUSA, Willd., also common in South India, has 

 elliptic acuminate leaves and more slender spikes. 



In all these the flower is of the same type, the corolla 

 two-lipped, the upper lip with two, the lower with 

 three lobes, imbricate (not twisted) in bud. The sta- 

 mens are two, and the anthers have white tails. The 

 corolla is generally white, marked with pink. 



CHARACTERS OF THE ACANTHACE^E 



This family the ACANTHACE^E is a large one, and al- 

 most entirely confined to the tropics. It consists mostly 

 of weak-stemmed herbs and shrubs. The leaves are 

 always opposite, without stipules, undivided and gener- 

 ally entire, and the branches are often swollen at the 

 nodes. Bracts and bracteoles usually occur. The calyx 

 is deeply divided into five sepals : the corolla is sym- 

 petalous, of five lobes, which in some are nearly equal, 

 in others form two distinct lips ; and the lobes may be 

 convolute (twisted) or imbricate in bud. The stamens 

 four or two (never five). The ovary is superior, of two 

 cells; the fruit a loculi-cidal two valved capsule, with 

 seeds on thick hard stalks, which in most cases shoot 

 them out when the capsule opens. This last is the 

 family's most characteristic feature. In some genera 

 the capsule contains 4 6 seeds only, being empty and 

 contracted at the bottom as in ASYSTASIA. Other 

 common plants belonging to this family are : 



BARLERIA PRIONITES, L., a green-stemmed shrub 

 with narrow leaves and a three-pronged spine at each 



