ACANTIIACE.E 351 



elongated ; and the first pair of leaves are lanceolate. Many 

 others conform pretty closely to this type. A curious dimor- 

 phism of the leaves may be noted in Asystasia coromandeliana. 

 The first two pairs of leaves are ovate, followed by others 

 which become broader and shorter until they are almost 

 rotund on the upper part of the plant. The leaves of the 

 first pair produced on the primary branches are small, 

 generally very unequal in size and obovate, emarginate, or 

 broadly ovate and cuspidate, or one of the two may be small, 

 orbicular and entire. Succeeding ones gradually assume the 

 normal form. 



Another type where the cotyledons are very much shortened 

 and almost reniform is represented by Blechum Brownei. In 

 this species they are emarginate, truncate at the base, but 

 cuneate at their attachment to the petiole and five-nerved. The 

 cotyledons of Strobilanthes gossypinus differ slightly in being 

 entire, trinerved, larger and almost truncate at the base. 

 The primary internodes are very short, and the two first 

 pairs of leaves are broadly ovate, densely hairy, and overlap 

 one another in a decussate manner. Dipteracanthus pros- 

 tratus agrees with the last, but the cotyledons are five-nerved. 

 The cotyledons of Strobilanthes callosus correspond more 

 closely to the type ; they are deeply and widely cordate at the 

 base, foliaceous, and measure 2 - 5-2'9 cm. long, by 4-2-4*4 cm. 

 wide. The hypocotyl is of considerable length, and so are 

 the primary internodes of the stem. This also applies to 

 Phaylopsis parviflora (fig. 578) although in a less degree. 

 The cotyledons have a rather longer, trinerved lamina than 

 in Blechum Brownei ; and the primary leaves are ovate with 

 finely incurved alternate nerves. 



Peristrophe speciosa (fig. 583) represents a third type 

 having obliquely obovate, cuneate, emarginate, trinerved 

 cotyledons. The first pair of leaves are ovate with a well- 

 marked, incurved, penninerved venation. The cotyledons 

 of P. bicalyculata are similar but smaller and unsym- 

 metrical. The first pair of leaves are lanceolate. In Eran- 

 themum leuconeurum (fig. 581) the cotyledons are still 

 smaller than the last, very slightly emarginate, and sym- 

 metrical or nearly so. The first two pairs of leaves are 



