FLORA OF ADEN. 
2-94 
1. Boerhaavia L. 
Erect or diffuse often divaricately branched herbs. Leaves opposite, 
often in unequal pairs. 
Eiowers small, paniculate, umbellate or subcapitate, articulated with 
the pedicel ; bracteoles small, often deciduous, rarely whorled and 
involucrate. Perianth -tube long or short, ovoid below, narrowed above 
the ovary ; limb funnel-shaped with 5-lobed margin, the lobes plicate. 
Stamens 1 or 2 — 5, connate below, exserted ; filaments capillary, unequal. 
Ovary oblique, stipitate ; ovule erect ; stigma peltate. 
Eruit enclosed in the ovoid, turbinate or clavate, obtuse or truncate 
perianth- tube, round, 5-ribbed or 5-angled, viscidly glandular. Seeds 
with adherent testa j embryo hooked ; cotyledons thin, broad, the outer 
the larger, enclosing a soft scanty albumen. 
Species about 30. 
& 
Distribution : — Tropical and subtropical regions. 
Flowers both in terminal umbels and lateral whorls . 1. B. verticillata. 
Flowers usually solitary, rarely in pairs . . . 2. B. elegans. 
Flowers all in terminal umbels • . . . , 3. B. repens. 
1. Boerhaavia verticillata Poir. Diet. V, 56 ; DC. Prodr.— XIII, 1, 
p. 454 ; Boiss. El. Or. IV, 1044 ; Hook. El. Brit. Ind. IV, 710. 
Boerhaavia scandens Ehrbg. exs. PI. Sinai ; Kotschy It. Nub. n. 144 
et. It. Syr. n. 126 ; Anders, Joum. Linn. Soc. V, Suppl. p. 33 [non L. 
Sp. PI. ed. 3, p. 14 et Chois, in DC. Prodr. XIII, p. 454 !]. 
Boerhaavia stellata Wight Ic. tab. 875. 
Boerhaavia dichotoma Yahl Enum. PI. I, 290. 
Boerhaavia repanda Willd. Sp. PI. I, 22. 
Boerhaavia grandiflora Bich. Hohen. in Schimp. PI. Abyss, n. 2309. 
Arabic name: — Ormol. 
Description : — Decumbent or climbing among bushes ; branches long, 
pale, terete, glabrous. Leaves thick, 1J — 2J inches long, nearly as broad 
or sometimes broader than long, broadly ovate or suborbicular (rarely 
oblong), obtuse, mucronate, usually glabrous with sinuate margins, base 
usually cordate ; petioles \ — | inch long, stout. 
Flowers in long-pedunculate racemes arranged in few-flowered 
distant whorls along a slender rhachis ; bracteoles small, ovate-oblong, 
acute ; pedicels up to §• inch long, slender. Perianth J inch long, 
white ) upper part broadly funnel-shaped, 1 line long, shallowly lobed 
