334 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
We mention in this place a plant which Defiers found in the central 
part of the crater, south of the path leading* to the Flagstaff in a ravine 
opening on the great reservoirs. 
Having seen one specimen only, and this very incomplete, Defiers 
'is doubtful even with regard to the natural order to which this plant 
might belong. Judging from the position and form of the inflorescence 
he thought, the specimen looked very much like a certain Antidesma of 
Koidofan, of which he had seen specimens in Schweinfurth’s herbarium. 
But Baillon, who also examined the plant, seems to have detected some 
better founded analogies with the genus Acahj'pha ) without, however, 
arriving at a definite conclusion. In order to draw the attention of 
botanists to this probably undescribed species, we do not consider it 
superfluous, to repeat here Defiers* description. 
“ Suffruticosa, dumulosa, a collo ramosissima ; ramis erectis, elongatis, 
inerrmbus, lignosis, foliosis, adpresse sericeis,'cortice rubro ; foliis sparsis, 
exstipulatis, bre viter petiolatis, lineari-ellipticis, obtusis, basi attenuatis, 
uninerviis, integris, velutinis, ad nervum et petiolum purpurascentibus ; 
floribus (masculis ?) bracteatis, in spicas tenues amentiform.es, folio op- 
positas et eo ft — 3-plo longiores, dispositis ; rhachide filiformi, velutino, 
purpurascenti ; bracteis crebris minutis, sessilibus, orbiculatis, valde con- 
cavis, hirtis, persistentibus. 
“ l|-pedalis ; folia 3 — 5 lin. long, \ — | lin. lat.; petioli vix J — -J lin. 
longi.*’ 1 
XLVII. — URTICACEJE. 
Herbs, shrubs, or trees. Leaves usually alternate, often oblique ; 
stipules various. 
Flowers cymose or clustered, usually minute, monoecious or dioecious, 
] -sexual, hermaphrodite, or rarely polygamous, often crowded on the 
surface of a fleshy flat concave or globose receptacle, sometimes hollow 
and closed ; bracts usually small or 0, sometimes 2 — 4 or more, involu- 
crate. Perianth simple, calycine, regular or irregular, equally or un- 
equally toothed, lobed or partite ; segments imbricate or valvate. Disk 
hypogynous, obscure or 0. Stamens as many as and opposite to the 
perianth-lobes, sometimes adnate to their base (rarely fewer or more) ; 
filaments free or rarely connate at the base ; anthers ft-celled. Pistillode 
in male flowers small or 0. Ovary superior, 1-celled ; ovule solitary ; 
style often excentric, simple or 2 -fid with stigmatic arms, or stigma 
sessile, plumose or penicillate. 
Fruit simple, indehiscent, a drupe or samara, or of free acbenes, or 
compound in a confluent mass of perianths and pericarps. Seed erect, 
1 Defiers, A. In Bull. See. Bot. de France, Yol. 34, p. G$. 
