182 A FLORA OF MANILA 



globose or clavate. Female flowers: Calyx cupular, 4-lobed, or sepals 4, 

 equal or very unequal. Ovary oblique; style civoid or linear. Achene 

 oblique, compressed, exserted, membranaceous. (In honor of J. F. Fleury, 

 a French botanist.) 

 ~^ Species 8, of wide tropical distribution^ 2 in the Philippines. 



1. F. INTERRUFTA (L.) Gaudich. Lipang-aso, Lipang-castila (Tag.). 



An erect, somewhat branched or simple, rather stout, annual herb 0.4 to 

 1.3 m high, the stems green, succulent, the vegetative parts with scattered, 

 somewhat stinging, spreading hairs. Leaves ovate, acuminate, crenate or 

 serrate, base broad, rounded or faintly cordate, 5 to 15 cm long, with 

 scattered hairs on both surfaces, the petioles long. Inflorescence narrow, 

 axillary, slender, up to 20 cm in length, of numerous, short, paniculately 

 arranged cymes. Flowers crowded, greenish, small, intermixed with 

 numerous pedicels of fallen flowers, the perianth of the pistillate ones 1 

 to 1.5 mm long; achenes straw-colored, compressed, 1.5 to 1.8 mm long. 



Occasional in waste places, scattered, fl. all the year, but mostly in the 

 rainy season, almost certainly introduced; widely distributed in the Phil- 

 ippines. India to China, Malaya, and Polynesia. 



6. PI LEA Lindley 



Herbs, the leaves opposite, in equal or unequal pairs, entire or ferrate, 

 usually 3-nerved, the stipules connate into an intra-petiolar one. Flowers 

 monoecious or dioecious, in axillary short- or long-peduncled, dense or 

 dichotomously branched cymes. Male flowers : Sepals 2 to 4, free or 

 connate at the base, often, swollen or spurred at the back. Stamens 2 to 4. 

 Rudimentary ovary conic or oblong. Female flowers : Sepals 3, rarely 4, 

 very small, unequal, the dorsal one longest and sometimes swollen or 

 hooded. Staminodes minute or none. Ovary straight; stigma sessile, 

 penicillate. Achene ovoid or oblong, compressed, membranaceous or crus- 

 taceous. (Latin "felt cap" from a flower character in the original species.) 



Species 170 or more, of wide tropical distribution, 13 in the Philippines, 

 a single introduced species in our area. 



1. P. MiCROPHYLLA (L.) Liebm. (P. muscoaa Lindl). Gunpowder Plant. 



An erect or ascending, simple, glabrous, annual, somewhat succulent, 

 usually gregarious herb 10 cm high or less, stems slender, green or tinged 

 with purple, angular. iTeaves 2-ranked, petioled, the blades green, sub- 

 elliptic, 2 to 5 mm long. Flowers in small, congested, subcapitate, nearly 

 sessile, axillary cymes, the individual flowers greenish or tinged with red, 

 less than 1 mm long. 



Abundant on damp walls, etc., fl. throughout the year, but mostly in the 

 rainy season; widely distributed in the Philippines. A native of South 

 America, now introduced in various other tropical countries. 



The common English name is derived from the fact that a clowd of pollen 

 is discharged when the plant is shaken. 



6. ELAT08TEMA Forster 



Prostrate or erect, simple or brancned herbs, sometimes suffrutescent. 

 Leaves alternate, or a minute one often opposite the normal ones, distichous, 

 sessile or subsessile, usually oblique or unequal-sided, mostly 3-nerved at 

 the base or above it. Flowers very small, monoecious or dioecious, crowded 

 on sessile or peduncled, axillary, unisexual, involucrate receptacles the 

 bracts rounded or oblong, the outer ones sometimes spurred. Female 



