Allceophania.\ RtibiaceCB. 3OI 



10. ALKEOPHANIA, Thw. 



A weedy under-shrub, stip. large, connate, membranous, 



fl. small, dimorphic, crowded in dense axillary whorls ; cal.- 



limb tubular, membranous, segm. 4, linear-setaceous, persistent ; 



cor. funnel-shaped, lobes 4, valvate ; stam. 4 ; ov. 4-celled, 



with 1 erect ovule in each cell, style simple, stigmas 4, long ; 



fruit small, turbinate, enclosing 4 small bony 1 -seeded 



pyrenes. — Sp. 2 or 3 ; 2 in Fl. B. Ind., but none in Indian 



Peninsula. 



This genus is difficult to place in the Order; it has affinities with 

 Lasianthns as well as with Hedyotis. 



A. decipiens, Thw. Enum. 147 (1859). [Plate XLVIII.] 



C. P. 3093. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 48. 



A coarse rigid perennial, stems numerous, 2-4 ft. high, 

 semi-woody below, much divaricately branched, sub-quad- 

 rangular, adpressed-pubescent; 1. 2— 2\ in., lanceolate or oval- 

 lanceolate, acute at base, acuminate, acute, glabrous or nearly 

 so and bullate above, pilose silky or pubescent on the very 

 prominent veins beneath, especially when young, petiole \-\ 

 in., stip. connate, forming a tube, truncate, membranous, with 

 branched bristly hairs, at length splitting up and deciduous ; 

 fl. sessile, very crowded in dense opp. axillary clusters forming 

 whorls, cal.-limb long, segm. shorter than tube, linear, acu- 

 minate, bristly-hairy ; cor. hairy at the mouth, lobes more 

 than half as long as tube, lanceolate, acute, recurved, stam. 

 erect ; style hidden or exserted, stigma 4-fid ; fruit small, 

 flat-topped, crowned with cal.-limb and often connivent segm., 

 pyrenes very small, triangular, smooth, yellow. 



Var. /3, flavescens, Thw. Enum. 1. c. C. P. 3094. 



L. oval or subrotundate, rounded or subcordate at base, 

 the margin strongly revolute, veins much more hairy, often 

 villous beneath. 



Var. 7, Arnottii, Hk. f. in Fl. B. Ind. 1. c. (sp.). Hedyotis nodulosa, 

 var. «, Thw. Enum. 143. C. P. 87. 



L. larger, acuminate at both ends, nearly glabrous, on 

 longer petioles. 



Montane zone from 3000 ft. upwards, especially at the higher eleva- 

 tions ; very common. Fl. Feb.-Aug. ; white or bluish, anth. violet. 



Endemic. 



This bears so strong a resemblance to Hedyotis nodulosa (with which, 

 indeed, it was mixed even by Thwaites) that it can be distinguished with 

 certainty only by examining the ovary or the fruit-structure. It is very 



