230 MR. O. BEKTHAM ON EUPHOEBIACE/E. 



aided by others. The genus requires, therefore, redivision upon 

 other principles. 5. Micrococca, a common annual weed of culti- 

 vation in tropical Africa and Asia. It has been united, first by 

 Thwaites and subsequently by Mueller, with Claoxylon, of whicli it 

 has nearly the anthers but not the habit ; and in the narrow linear 

 appendages of the hypogynous disk, and other characters, it comes 

 nearer to Mer cur talis. 6. Mercurialis, six well-known species, 

 almost entirely extratropical in the northern hemisphere of the 

 Old World. 7. Leidesia, two species, 8. Adenocline (including 

 Paradenocline), three or four species, and 9. Seidelia, onespecies^ 

 are all small herbs, mostly annual, from South Africa, all evi- 

 dently very nearly allied in habit and character, although Mueller 

 places Leidesia next to Mercurialis in Acalyphese, Adenocline as 

 a distinct subtribe in Hippomanese, and Seidelia, by some extra- 

 ordinary misconception, in a section of Tragia. Some of these 

 little South-African Merciwialis-Wke plants have the cotyledons 

 narrower than usual in the tropical tribes, and showing some 

 approach to those of Stenolobese. 



A second group, distinguished chiefly by the form of the anthers 

 and generally by the styles, consists of the universally acknow- 

 ledged genus Acalyplia, of about 220 species widely distributed 

 over the tropical and subtropical regions of the globe, together 

 with Mareya, two species (or varieties of one) from tropical 

 Africa, which I had formerly published as species of Acalt/pha, 

 but which Mueller seems to have had good grounds for separating. 

 Among the various series proposed for grouping the species of 

 Acalt/pha, the only one with characters positive enough to assign 

 to it sectional value is Linostacliys, comprising a few American 

 and one Asiatic species, with a very exceptional slender panicu- 

 late female inflorescence. 



Our third group is a series of nineteen genera, some of them 

 showing but little connexion with each other, but none of them 

 having the special characters by which the other groups of Acaly- 

 phese are distinguished ; all, except Alchornea, are limited either 

 to America or to the Old World ; the first ten are technically 

 characterized by the stamens rarely more than 8, and often much 

 fewer — the remaining nine having them rarely under 15, and 

 often much more numerous. They are: — 1. Adelia (the Linnean 

 name, replaced in the ' Prodromus ' by Ricinella for reasons which 

 I have shown above, p. 19*3, to be inadequate), 7 tropical Ameri- 

 can, chieflv West-Indian shrubs, with an excentionallv axillary 



