PHANEROGAMS— PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 217 



A. coromandeliana, Nees ab. Esenb. in Wall. PI. As. Rar. iii. 89, and in 

 DC. Prod. xi. 165. 



Justicia gangctica, Linn. Amcen. Acad. iv. 299. 



Socotra. A common weed. B.C.S. n. 468. Schweinf. mi. 330 in lit., 479. 



Distrib. A widely-dispersed weed of tropical Africa, Arabia, India, and 

 Malay. 



A very variable species. Our specimens are delicate, with slender branch- 

 ing stems, tender membranous leaves, and short racemes of flowers, the corollas 

 of which are little more than one-third of an inch long. Many of the tropical 

 African forms are slender, but possibly when these are worked out more than 

 one species may be found included under this name. 



6. BALLOCHIA. 



BallocUa, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xii. (1883), 86. 



Calyx 5-partitus, segmentis angustis acutis suboequalibus. Corollas tubus longiusculus, 

 recurvatus, extus pubescens, intus glanduloso-puberulus, fauce ampla ; liinbus 2-labiatus, 

 labio postico exteriore oblongo erecto concaviusculo breviter 2-lobato, antico 3-partito 

 segmentis planis inter se subaequalibus lateralibus erectis intermedio intimo patente. 

 Stamina 2 antica perfecta, fauci affixa, labio postico paulum breviora v. sublongiora, 

 nlamentis decurrentibus validis complanatis postice cum staminodiis parvis sublinearibus 

 uncinatis subconnatis ; antherae 1-loculares, oblongae, medio dorso affixae, muticae, apertae 

 late membranaceae. Discus pulvinatus. Stylus filiformis, apice integer obtusus v. 

 brevissime bifidus ; ovula in quoque loculo 3. Capsula oblonga, basi in stipitem solidum 

 longe contracta. Semina 4 v. abortu pauciora, compressa, suborbiculata, rugosa, scrobicul- 

 ata, retinaculis tenuibus fulta ; embryo normalis. — Frutices elati v. humiles, lignosi, 

 rigidi, inflorescentia glanduloso-puberula excepta glabri. Folia parva, integerrima, crassa, 

 Flores flammeo-flavi. v. flavidi, pedicellati, in axillis solitarii v. dichasia axillaria simplicia 

 formantes. Bracteae minimae, aiigustae. 



A very distinct genus of the Eajusticiece section of the tribe JusticAece, and 

 belonging to a group of genera characterised by the possession of two stamens 

 with one-celled muticous anthers. Oreacantltus, a monotypic genus of the 

 Cameroon mountains, is its nearest ally, but in addition to several technical 

 characters — such as the axillary inflorescences, the external posterior lobes of the 

 corolla limb, the staminocles — in which our plant differs from that genus, the 

 habit and general facies of the plants render their combination in one genus 

 impracticable. 



Mofiothecium, an Abyssinian and Indian genus, Rutty a, a tropical and south 

 African one, and Brachystephanus, from Madagascar and tropical Africa, are all 

 genera of the set to which Ballochia belongs, but the first of these has linear 

 setaceous bracts, the second has appendaged anthers, and the third has the 

 posterior corolline lobe internal, whilst all of them have more or less spicate 

 inflorescences. Thus by technical character they are sufficiently diagnosed, 

 and besides, in habit they are readily and completely distinguished. 



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