nn ae 
8 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 
sessile or pedunculate, globose or ovoid heads; bract 1, bracteeles 
2, scarious. Perianth-segments 5, equal, imbricate, free or nearly 
so, scarious, oblong-lanceolate, nerved, erect in fruit. Stamens 
5, united below in a membranous hypogynous cup ; filaments slender ; 
anthers small, 2-celled, dorsifixed. Ovary ovoid, 1-celled, narrowed 
into a long straight style ; stigma capitate, 2-lobed ; ovule solitary, 
erect. Fruit a subglobose or ovoid circumsciss membranous 
atricle. Seed 1, orbicular, flattened ; testa crustaceous, black, with a 
basal cup-shaped aril ; embryo annular, surrounding copious mealy 
albumen ; cotyledons linear; radicle inferior. Distris. About 3 
sp: cies, in Tropical Asia. 
1. ALLMANIA NODIFLORA, Br. in Wall. Cat. 6890 (1828). A diffuse 
annual (or sometimes perennial ?) herb; branchlets angular, dichoto- 
mously divaricate, pale when dry, glabrous or slightly puberulous. 
Leaves variable, linear-lanceolate to oblong or spathulate, often mu- 
cronate at apex; petiole 0 or slender. Flowers in globose sessile 
or shortly pedunculate axillary white or brown heads, 10—15 mm. 
in diameter; bract linear-lanceolate, 4—5 mm. long, bracteoles 
similar, rather shorter, keeled. Perianth-lobes oblong-lanceolate, 
acuminate, 5 mm. long, strongly l-nerved, shortly connate at 
the base. Ovary ovoid, membranous; style 1°5 mm. long; stigma 
small, capitate, very shortly 2-lobed. Utricle membranous, hyaline. 
Seed large, nearly as large as the utricle, orbicular, flattened ; aril 
cup-shaped, 2-lobed. Hook. f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 717; Cooke Bomb. 
Fl. II. 487; Prain Beng. Plants 867; Engl. & Prantl Naturl. 
Pflanzenfam. III. la. 102, t. 55. Celosia nodiflora, Linn. Sp. PI. 
298. Achyranthes nodiflora, Roxb. Fl. Ind.I. 678. Chamissoa nodi- 
flora, Mart.; Mog. in DC. Prodr. XIII. 2. 249; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 
IT. 1. 1029. C. aspera, Wight Ic. t. 1772. C. dichotoma, Wight - 
fest. 17 7a 
Disrris. India, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, China. 
Var. esculenta, Hook.f. Leaves very narrow linear, 3—5 cm. long. 
A. esculenta, Br. in Wall. Cat. 6892 ; Mog. l.c. 249. 
Mauacca: Griffith 4182! Cuming 2297! Panane: Ridley 1409! 
SINGAPORE: Ridley 9493 ! 
Var. procumbens, Hook. f. Leaves spathulate or oblanceolate, 
3—3°5 cm. long, 10—12 mm. broad. Wall. Cat. 6980 E in part. A. 
nodiflora, Wight Ic. t. 1770. 
SmuneaPpore: Ridley 3381! 
