Boerhaavia.~\ 
NYCTAGINACEiE 
265 
Sieb. Herb . Maur. No. 145, non Comm. B. procumbens and insularis, 
Bojer, Hort. Maur. 264. 
Mauritius, ^Seychelles, and Rodriguez, common in waste ground. Through 
the tropics of the Old World. Herbe Pintade. 
Order LXXIX * BASELLACEiE. 
Basella rubra , Linn ; Moq. in. DC. Prod. xiii. 2, 222, a native of 
Tropical Asia, commonly cultivated as a potherb, is subspontaneous in 
Mauritius and Rodriguez. It is a succulent annual herb, with climbing 
purple stems, large alternate petioled entire ovate acute leaves, rose- 
purple flowers in lax simple axillary spikes, a campanulate calyx-tube 
becoming berry-like as it matures, a biserial perianth with two navi- 
cular outer lobes and 5 deltoid inner ones, 5 included stamens inserted 
at the throat of the perianth, a 1-celled 1-ovulate ovary with three 
stigmas and small black berries with purple juice. B. alba , Linn., is a 
variety with green stems and white flowers and berries. Bredes 
Gandolles or Bredes d'angole. 
Order LXXIX .** THYMELACEiE. 
Wikstromia viridiflora, Meisn. in DC. Prod, xiv, 546, (Daphne viridi- 
flora, Wall.; Bojer, Hort. Maur. 276), a native of Tropical Asia and 
Polynesia, is now established on the hills in Mauritius. It is a much- 
branched glabrous shrub, with nearly sessile small oblong coriaceous 
leaves, greenish flowers few together in terminal corymbs, perianth 
hypocrateriform f in. long with a cylindrical tube dilated into a globe 
at the base and 4 oblong spreading lobes, 8 stamens nearly sessile in 
two rows in the upper half of the tube, a superior 1-celled ovary with 
a single pendulous ovule and nearly sessile capitate stigma and a fleshy 
fruit the size of a pea. Herbe d, tourterelle. 
Order LXXX. AMABANTHACE^]. 
Blowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamo-monoicous, the lateral 
ones of the clusters sometimes neuter. Perianth scariose ; segments 
usually 5, sometimes 3, surrounded by 3 equal or unequal bracts, often 
of similar texture. Stamens 3-5, hypogynous ; filaments free or united 
in a cupule at the base, often alternating with staminodia ; anthers 2- 
or 1-celled. Ovary usually 1-celled and 1-ovuled ; style absent or 
filiform ; stigma capitate or 2-3-cleft. Bruit in the Mauritian genera 
always a utricle, which in Amarantlius dehisces horizontally round 
the middle. Seed solitary, with a peripheric embryo and a round cen- 
tral mass of farinaceous albumen. — Herbs with simple entire opposite 
or alternate leaves and persistent minute scariose flowers clustered in 
spikes or round heads. Distrib. Tropics of both hemispheres. Spe- 
cies 400. 
