Hydrolea.~\ lxxxviii. hydrophyllace.e (baker and brown). 3 



inserted at the sinuses of the corolla ; filaments fiilform, usually dilated at 

 the base ; anthers sagittate. Ovary 2- (rarely 3-) celled ; placentas 

 fleshy, adnate to the dissepiments ; ovules many in a cell ; styles 2, 

 distinct from the base, subulate ; stigmas simple or capitate. Capsule 

 globose, ellipsoid or ovoicl, membranous, usually septicidally 2-valved. 

 Seeds many, minute. Herbs or undershrubs, sometimes spinous, 

 glabrous or softly glandular-pilose. Leaves alternate, entire. Flowers 

 blue, \isually in peduncled bracteate cymes, which form a panicle, some- 

 times in axillary clusters or racemes. 



Species, about 20, spread widely in the Tropical and Temperate regions of both 

 hemispheres. 



All the following species are herbaceous, without spines. 

 Flowers racemosely arranged along the stems in axillary 



clusters or very short racemes . . . . 1. H. guineensis. 



Flowers in panicled cymes 



Sep;i Is cordate; cymes lax, few-flowered . . .2. H. macros epala. 



Sepals lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; cymes compact, 

 many-flowered 



Pedicels and sepals with long glandular hairs . 3. H. sansibarica. 

 Pedicels and sepals glabrous to the eye 



Staminal-filaments with a cross-shaped or ob- 



cordate dilatation at the base . . . 4. H. florihunda. 



Staminal -filaments with a deltoid-ovate or 



rhomboid dilatation at the base . . 5. H. graminifolia. 



1. H. guineensis, Ghoisy in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, i. 180. — Main 

 stem apparently decumbent or creeping, with erect or ascending 

 branches 3-18 in. high, not hollow, glabrous. Leaves 1^-3^ in. long, 

 2-8 lin. broad, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, acutely tapering at the 

 base into a petiole 1-7 lin. long, glabrous. Flowers racemosely 

 arranged in numerous axillary clusters of 3-5 or the lower 4-7- 

 flowered ; racemes J-l in. long. Bracts 1^-8 lin. long, lanceolate or 

 linear-lanceolate, glabrous. Pedicels |— 1 lin. long, glabrous. Sepals 

 2|-3 (in fruit 3|-4) lin. long, |-1 1 lin. broad, unequal, lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate, acute, glabrous. Corolla blue, glabrous; lobes nearly 1 lin. 

 long, |-1 lin. broad, oblong or narrowly elliptic-oblong, rounded at the 

 apex. Staminal-filaments l^-l^ lin. long, filiform, with a deltoid 

 dilated base ; anthers f lin. long. Hypogynous disk very inconspicuous. 

 Styles |-1 lin. long. Capsule about 2 lin. long, subglobose or very 

 broadly ovoid. — DC. Prodr. x. 180. H. glabra, Schum. &Thonn. Beskr. 

 Guin. PI. 161, not of Smith or other authors. H. zeylanica, A. W. 

 Benn. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xi. 275, partly, not of Yahl. 



Upper Guinea. Senegal, Heudelot or Leprieur, 79 ! Sierra Leone : between 

 Kahreni and Lokko, Scolt-JElliot, 5805 ! Guinea, Thonning. Lagos : Abeokuta, 

 Irving, 46 ! Southern Nigeria : Abo, Barter, 185 ! Cameroons : Yaunde, Zenker, I486 ! 



Lover Guinea. Congo, Smith ! 



Allied to S. zeylanica, Vahl, but easily recognised by its more clustered flowers 

 and much shorter pedicels. 



The name R. glabra cannot be maintained for this plant, and has been so 

 misunderstood by A. W. Bennett in his ''Review of the Genus Hydrolea," in 



