72 xc. convolvulace^e (baker, and rendle). [Cladostic/ma. 



numerous, slender (1-1+ lin. thick), elongated, finally leafless- and 

 spinescent at the tip, ultimate branchlets shortened, tuberculiform. 

 Leaves scattered on the elongated branches, fascicled on the dwarf 

 shoots (2 |— 9 lin. long, about 2 lin. broad), very variable in form, 

 narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, obtuse or emarginate, 

 base acute, tapering into the very short petiole, adpressed hairy on both 

 surfaces. Flowers small, solitary, generally fascicled with the leaves on 

 the dwarf shoots; pedicels slender, about equal to the flowers, bearing 

 a pair of minute linear bracts near the base. Sepals subequal, thinly 

 membranous, silvery-silky on the back, in the male about 1 lin. long, 

 ovate and subobtuse, in the female obovate-spathulate, nearly equal to 

 the corolla, 3 lin. long and nearly as broad ; in the fruit rather rigid, 

 spreading, longitudinally 5-nerved and transversely veined. Corolla 

 campanulate, funnel-shaped, 3-| lin. long; lower part of tube sub- 

 globose, upper campanulate ; lobes equal in length to the tube, elliptic- 

 ovate, back silky, edges glabrous. Stamens shorter than the corolla, 

 glabrous ; filaments filiform, subulate, dilated gradually towards the 

 base ; anthers oblong, absent in the female. Disc in male flower 

 thick, 5-lobed ; sterile pistil cone-shaped, long-haired ; styles as long as 

 the stamens, each ending in a deeply cordate 5-lobed stigma. Disc in 

 female flower small, 5-lobed ; ovary subglobose ; styles filiform, twice as 

 long as the ovary ; stigmas large, exserted, forked, branches irregularly 

 pinnately lobed. Capsule shortly ovoid, 4-valved, 4-seeded. — Engl. 

 Jahrb. xxxiv. 154, fig. 1. C. dioicum, Schinz in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iii. 

 414, not of Racllk. 



Wile Iiand. Somaliland : Abdallah, Keller, 43 ; Boran, Tarro Gumbi, Ellen- 

 beck, 2076 ; Djaro, Mlenbeok, 2061; Bunder Gumbi, Mlenbeck, 2079, and at 

 Marta on the Ganane, Ellenbeck, 2032. Gallaland : Bufa Plateau, 'Ellenbeclc, 

 1069; between Ennia-Galla and Arussi-Galla, 1156, and on the Atshabo Plateau, 

 mienbecJi, 1105. 



7. CRESSA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 881. 



Sepals coriaceous, obovate, subequal, imbricate. Corolla-tube 

 campanulate; lobes ovate, imbricate in bud, spreading. Stamens and 

 styles exserted ; filaments filiform, glabrous ; anthers oblong. Disc 

 inconspicuous. Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled ; styles distinct from the 

 base ; stigmas capitate. Capsule 2-4-valved, usually 1-seeded. Seed 

 glabrous, shining ; cotyledons linear, plicate. — A much-branched, low- 

 growing, suffrutescent perennial. Leaves small, entire, sessile. Flowers 

 small, aggregated at the tip of the branchlets in bracteate spikes. 

 One or a few closely allied species. 



1. C. cretica, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 1, 22'i. Stems slender, terete, 

 woody, a few inches to a foot long, with numerous spreading or 

 ascending, hairy, denselydeaved branchlets. Leaves ovate to lanceo- 

 late, acute, sessile, ■£- \ in. long. Flowers aggregated in dense spikes 

 at the end of the branchlets, each bracteated by a reduced leaf. Calyx 

 hairy, ] | lin. long. Sepals concave, obovate, subacute. Corolla about 



