FLORA OF ADEN. 
283 
twisted in bud. Stamens 4 or 2, epipetalous ; anthers 2 — 1-celled. Ovary 
superior, 2-celled ; ovules 1 or more in each cell, anatropous ; stigma 
usually bilobed. 
Fruit a loculicidal capsule, the valves often elastically recurved, the 
septum splitting, the seeds born on each half. Seeds usually hard, often 
clothed with white elastic hairs (best seen when wetted), seated on hard 
upcurved subacute supports ; albumen 0 or scanty. 
Genera about 140 ; species about 2,000. 
Distribution : — Tropical and warm temperate regions. 
Oorolla without an upper lip ; lower lip large expanded, 3- lobed . . 1. Blepharis. 
■Corolla 2-lipped or with 5 subequal lobes : 
Corolla-lobes twisted to the left in bud ..... 2. Ruellia. 
Corolla-lobes imbricate in bud ...... 3. Barleria. 
1. Blepharis Jwss. 
Harsh prickly, or smooth slender undershrubs generally without 
stellate or gland-tipped hairs. Leaves by the adjacent pairs being 
drawn together appearing in whorls of 4, outer pair in each whorl often 
smaller, sometimes very much smaller, or reduced and almost resembling 
stipules. 
Spikes of flowers strobilate ; bract green, ovate or obovate, veined, 
nearly always spinous; bracteoles 2 or 0, linear, rarely lanceolate, 
1 -nerved, acute ; in many spikes all the bracts except the highest sterile. 
Calyx sub-4-partite to the base ; 2 anticous segments connate nearly to 
the tip ; posticous segment lanceolate, 3-nerved, usually longer than 
the anticous ; 2 interior segments, narrow, long or short. Corolla ; 
posticous lip 0, replaced by a horny rim ; anticous lip nearly flat, 
3 — 5-lobed, bluish, white, or fading to yellowish. Stamens 4, sub- 
similar ; anthers 1-celled, narrow-oblong, muticous, fringed with white 
hairs near the slit; filaments of 2 anticous stamens more flattened with 
rudiments of missing anther more developed ; pollen longish-ellipsoid, 
with a few very narrow longitudinal smooth chinks not reaching the 
poles. Ovary 2 — 1 ovules in each cell, glabrous ; style glabrous (rarely 
with a few thin hairs below), branches 2, lanceolate ; at the apex of 
the ovary on the posticous face are 2 hollows filled with glands. 
Capsule ellipsoid, flattened, woody, shining- brown, 2- (rarely 4-) 
seeded ; seeds covered with rope-like bundles of hair, which on applying 
water unroll into very long 1-celled hairs each furnished with a spiral 
band within. 
Species about 50. 
