194 A FLORA OP MANILA 



narrowed, petioled. Spikes terminal, 5 to 30 cm long, slender, the clusters 

 of flowers remote, bracteate, woolly. Bristles of the imperfect flowers 

 brown or purplish, stellately arranged, slender, hooked at the ends. 



In' thickets along roads and trails, San Pedro Macati, Pasay, etc., fl. 

 Aug.-Nov.; widely distributed in the Philippines, surely introduced. Trop- 

 ical Asia, Africa, and Malaya. 



7. CYATHULA Loureiro 



Prostrate or ascending herbs with opposite leaves. Flowers clustered, 

 the clusters spicate, reflexed in fruit. Perfect flowers 1 or 2 in each 

 cluster, surrounded by imperfect ones reduced to sepals and with rigid 

 hooked awns. Sepals 5, 1-neryed, acuminate. Stamens 5, connate, united 

 below with the retuse or 2-fid staminodes. Ovary obovoid, ovules 1, pen- 

 dulous. Fruit a small, ovoid, indehiscent utricle. (Diminutive of Greek 

 "cup.") 



Species about 10, of wide tropical distribution, the following in the 

 Philippines. 



L C. PROSTRATA (L.) Bl. Dayang (Tag.). 



An annual branched herb, the stems _ prostrate and creeping^ below, 

 reaching a length of 1 m or more, the branches erect or' ascending. 

 Leaves rhomboid-oblong, 2 to 8 cm long, acute or obtuse, gradually 

 narrowed from the middle -to the acute base, nearly sessile. Spikes terminal 

 and axillary, slender, peduncled, 5 to 20 cm long. Clusters of flowers 

 numerous, ovoid, about 3 mm long, greenish. Sepals pubescent. 



In thickets, occasional, fl. Noy.-Feb.; common and widely distributed in 

 the Philippines. Tropics generally. 



I 8. AERUA Forskal 



Woolly herbs or undershrubs, sometimes climbing. Leaves alternate or 

 opposite. Flowers small in solitary or panicled spikes ' or in sessile 

 axillary heads. Sepals 4 or 5, short, thin, -all or only the inner ones 

 woolly. Stamens 4 or 5, connate below, with interposed linear staminodes; 

 anthers 2-celled. Fruit an indehiscent or circumsciss utricle. 



Species about 10 in tropical Asia, Malaya, and Africa, 2 in the Phil- 

 ippines. 



1. A. LANATA (L.) Juss. 



An ascending or prostrate densely grayish-pubescent herb, the stems 

 0.2 to 0.8 m in length, simple or branched. Leaves alternate, petioled, 

 elliptic to orbicular or obovate, obtuse, 1 to 3.5 cm long. Spikes numerous, 

 white, axillary, solitary or crowded in the axils, densely flowered, 1 cm 

 long or less, the flowers green and white, 2 mm in diameter. (Fl. Filip. 

 pi. 35i.} 



In open dry lands, common locally, A. all the year; throughout the 

 Philippines at low altitudes, updoubtedly introduced. Africa, India, and 

 Malaya. 



9. ACHYRANTHES Linnaeus 



Coarse herbs with opposite leaves, the flowers in simple or panicled 

 spikes, deflexed immediately after opening, the bracts and bracteoles 

 spinescent. Sepals 4 or 5, the filaments connate at the base, the stami- 



