Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 3 
exserted; filaments capillary, unequal. Ovary oblique, stipitate : 
ovule erect; stigma peltate. Fruii small, enclosed in the ovoid, tur- 
binate or clavate, truncate, ribbed or angled, viscidly glandular 
' perianth-tube; embryo conduplicate; cotyledons thin, broad, the 
outer the larger, enclosing the soft floury albumen; radicle long.— 
Distriz. About 30 species, tropical and subtropical. 
BOERHAAVIA DIFFUSA, Linn. Sp. Pl. 3 (1753). A diffuse herb; 
root fusiform, stout; stems prostrate or ascending, divaricate, 
thickened at the nodes. Leaves opposite, in unequal pairs, ovate 
or orbicular-ovate, rounded or acute at apex, truncate or cordate 
or rounded only at base; upper surface rough, lower whitish 
scaly ; larger one of each pair 2—3 cm. long, 1—2 cm. broad, smaller 
half the size or less ; main nerves 3—5 pairs, spreading, the lowest 
pair near the base; petiole slender, variable in length, up to 2 cm. 
long. Flowers in subcapitate heads, in divaricate slender dichoto- 
mously branched terminal panicles ; pedicels capillary; bracts small, 
lanceolate, acute. Perianth about 2 mm. long, the lower part of the 
tube about equalling the upper, the lower glandular enclosing the 
ovary, the upper glandular, dotted with red in 5 vertical bands, 
campanulate; lobes 5. Stamens 2, slightly exserted; the anthers 
glandular on the back. Fruit about 3 mm. long, obovate truncate. 
5-ribbed and glandular. Bl. Bijdr. 733; Choisy in DC. Prod. XIII. 2. 
452 ; Wall. Cat. 6770 ; Trimen Fl. Ceyl. ILI. 390 ; Cooke Bomb. FI. IT. 
480. B. procumbens, Herb. Banks in Roxb. Fl, Ind. I. 146; Wight 
Ic. t. 874. B. repens, Linn. Sp. Pl. 3; Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 709; 
Choisy in DC. |. c. 453; Collett Fl. Siml. 410 t. 131; Prain Beng. 
Plants 862.——‘ Talu-Dama ’ Rheede Hort. Mal. VII. 105. t. 56. 
PENANG: Curtis! Deschamps! Prov. WELLESLEY: Ridley 6983! 
StncaporeE: Lobb 309!; Ridley 9131! a common weed of roadsides 
and cultivated fields—Distrie. India, Ceylon, Malay Archipelago. 
tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa and America. 
Family XCIV.—AMARANTACEAL. 
Herbs, rarely shrubs, erect or with climbing branches. Leaves 
opposite or alternate, exstipulate. Flowers usually hermaphrodite, 
rarely polygamous or dicecious, small, usually in terminal and axil- 
lary simple or panicled spikes, cymes or clusters, the outermost 
flowers of a cluster sometimes deformed ; bracts hyaline or scarious ; 
bracteoles 2, scarious. Perianth of usually 5 segments, free or 
slightly connate below, scarious or hyaline, persistent, imbricate. 
