540 XCVII. PEDALINE^E (STAPF). 



** Spinous shrubs or small trees. Flowers in the axils 

 of much reduced bracts in terminal and sub- 

 terminal few-flowered racemes. 

 Corolla-tube eylindrie, very slightly curved, 



spurred . . . . . . .11. Sesamothamnts. 



Corolla-tube sigmatoid, spurless . . . .12. SlGMATOSlPHOBf. 



1. PEDALIXJM, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. 1056. 



Calyx small, 5-partite. Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, gradually 

 widened from a slender base ; limb spreading, obscurely 2- lipped ; 

 lobes orbicular, subequal. Anther-cells ovate, pendulous from the 

 apex of the connective, dehiscing longitudinally. Disc small, equal. 

 Ovary 2-celled ; cells undivided ; ovules 2 in each cell, from above the 

 middle of the septum. Fruit indehiscent, hard, quadrangular, with or 

 without conical spreading spines at the base of the angles. Seeds 1-2 

 in each cell, pendulous ; testa delicately punctate. — Annual succulent 

 herbs. Leaves entire or coarsely dentate. Flowers yellow, solitary in 

 the axils of the leaves. 



Species 2, 1 also in Soutli India and Madagascar. 

 Fruit with a conic spreading spine at the base of each 



angle. . . . . . . . 1. P. Murex. 



Fruit spineless, with tubercles on the faces . . 2. P. busseanum. 



1. P. Murex, Linn. Syst. ed. x. 1123. Stem simple or branched, 

 from a few inches to more than a foot high, like the whole plant more 

 or less glandular. Leaves elliptic or obovate, obtuse with a usually 

 acute base, coarsely and irregularly toothed, 1-2 in. long,- f~ 1J in. 

 broad ; petiole up to 1 in. long. Pedicels slender, about 1^ lin. long. 

 Calyx 1 lin. long ; segments lanceolate-triangular, acute. Corolla 

 yellow, 1 in. long or more ; limb 7-9 lin. across ; lobes 2^-3 lin. across. 

 Fruit pyramidal, abruptly contracted into a short hollow terete base 

 with 1 spine at the base of each angle, and small tubercles or raised 

 lines on the faces, \- f in. long. — Gaertn. Carp. t. 58; DC. Prodr. ix. 256 ; 

 Wight, Icon. t. 1615 ; Decne in Ann. Sc. Nat. 5 me ser. iii. 330 ; Schweinf. 

 Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 97 ; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. B. 156, C. 364. P. muri- 

 catum, Salisb. Prodr. 104. P. microcarpum, Decne, 1. c. 332. Rogeria 

 microcarpa, Klotzsch in Peters, Eeise Mosamb. Bot. 190. 



Nile Land. Eritrea : Shoho ; Wadi Togodele, Ehrenberg ! Mount Ghedem 

 near Massaua, 500-1000 ft., Schweinf urth § Rim,2Q0\ British East Africa: 

 Witu, Thomas, 166 ! Nyika Country, near Mombasa, Wakefield ! 



IVXozamb. Dist. Zanzibar, Hildebranclt, 989 ! German East Africa, 

 Hannington ! Portuguese East Africa: Mozambique, Forbes ! Kirk! near Sena, 

 Peters. 



Also in India and Madagascar. The leaves are eaten as a vegetable. 



2. P. busseanum, Sttqrf. Stem branched below (including the 

 branches)S-12in.high. Leaves obovate-spathulate to oblanceolate, obtuse 

 or subobtuse, attenuated into a petiole (up to 4 lin. long), 1^-li in. long, 



