1484 CXIX. UETICACEiE. [Laportea. 



flowers of L. gigas. Fruits densely clustered, the pedicels rather less thickened 

 but succulent, the whole fruiting panicle of a rich reddish-purple. — Urtica. 

 moroides; A. Cunn. Herb. 



Hab.: Port Denison, Fitzalan; Mount Elliott and Edgecombe and Bockingham Bays, 

 Ballachy. 



Not uncommon in the coastal scrubs. 



12. -PILEA, Lindl. 

 (From yi7os, a cap, alluding to the shape of one of the perianth-segments). 

 Flowers monoecious or dioecious, minute in axillary long or short pedunculate- 

 dichotomously branched cymes ; bracts small or none. Male flower : Sepals 2 to- 

 4, free or connate in a cup, often gibbous or horned at the back. Stamens 2 to 4. 

 Pistillode conic or oblong. Female flower : Sepals 3 rarely 4, very small and 

 unequal, dorsal longest, sometimes gibbous or hooded. Staminodia minute, or- 

 of scales or none. Ovary straight ; stigma sessile, penieillate ; ovule erect. 

 Achene ovoid or oblong, compressed, membranous or crustaceous, embraced or 

 not, and at the base only, by the sepals. Seed erect, albumen very scanty,, 

 cotyledons broad. — Herbs rarely undershrubs. Leaves in opposite equal or 

 unequal pairs, entire or serrate, 3-nerved, very rarely penninerVed '; stipules- 

 connate into one, infcrapetiolar. 

 The species tropical. 



1 P. muscosa (moss-like), Lindl. Gunpowder Plant. A small creeping or 

 erect almost succulent weed. Leaves obovate-spathulate, petiolate, 1 to 2J lines 

 long^ one of each pair often larger than the other, cymes axillary. Flower- 

 minute. — P. microphylla, Liebon. Urtica microphylla, Linn. 



Hab.: South America. A bush-house -weed. 



13. ELATOSTEMMA, Forst. 

 (From elatos, elastic, and sterna, stamen.) 

 Flowers monoecious or dioecious, in dense unisexual heads, the receptacle- 

 usually flat or concave, surrounded by an involucre of several bracts. Male 

 perianth of 4 or 5 distinct segments imbricate in the bud, each with a dorsal 

 point at or near the top. Stamens 4 or 5, the filaments more or less adnate to 

 the segments, the central rudimentary pistil usually very small ; anthers with 

 parallel cells placed back to back. Female perianth minute, of 3, rarely 4 

 segments. Stigma sessile, tufted. Nut ovate, slightly compressed. —Herbs 

 rarely shrubby at the base, without stinging hairs. Leaves usually distichous^ 

 alternate or if opposite one of each pair much smaller than the other, sessile or 

 very shortly petiolate, oblique or falcate, and unequal at the base or broadly 

 semicordate. Flower -heads solitary in the axils, the outer bracts usually 4 or 5, 

 the flowers very small and numerous, shortly pedicellate and intermixed with 

 numerous narrow bracts or bracteoles. 



The genus is spread over the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. 

 Coarse plant. Leaves 3 to 6in, long. Male heads J to lin. diameter. 



Females on short peduncles or nearly sessile \. E. reticulatum. 



Slender plant. Leaves 1 to 2in. long. Male heads 2 to 3 lines diameter. 

 Females on slender peduncles 2. E. stipitatum. 



1. S. reticulatum (reticulate), Wedd. in Atm. 8c.Nat.ser. 4, i. 188, illonoi/r. 

 JJrt. 302, and in DC. Prod. xvi. i. 176 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vi. 183. A coarse 

 straggling herb, the stems often rooting at the base, attaining 1 to 2ft. and 

 sometimes branched, the whole plant in the typical form either quite glabrous or 

 with a few rigid hairs on the midrib of the leaves underneath. Leaves usually 3 



