MR. G. BENTHAM ON EUPHORBIACE^E. 233 



appear to have been confounded, both differing from Mallotus 

 chiefly in the fruit and somewhat in habit. It is, however, by 

 some inadvertence that both Baillon and Mueller continue to 

 quote Gaertner's Tetragastris as a representation of the fruit of - 

 Trewia, although Kunth had long since identified it as that of Hed- 

 wigia. It was from a mistaken supposition that it was really that 

 of Trewia that Lindley was induced, in his ' Introduction to the 

 Natural System,' to propose it as a distinct order under the name 

 of Trewiaceae, a mistake which he corrected in his t Vegetable 

 Kingdom.' 18. Coccoceras,3 Malayan species, only differing from 

 Mallotus in the capsule, in which the dorsal angle of each coccus 

 is very prominent, and in the typical species produced into a long 

 horn-like point. 19. Mallotus, the Rottlera of Roxburgh, con- 

 taining at least 70 species dispersed over the Indo- Australian 

 region, and extending very sparingly into tropical Africa. Their 

 distribution into sections is as yet very unsatisfactory. There 

 is considerable diversity in their foliage and habit, as well as in 

 some of the floral characters ; but Mueller's one large and four 

 small sections are founded chiefly on modifications of the disk 

 and on the texture of the outer coating of the seed, which are 

 very uncertain or unknown in the case of most species, and ap- 

 parently very little in accord with other characters. A differ- 

 ence in the anthers, with the cells contiguous or separated by a 

 broad or truncate connective, may be more constant and appa- 

 rently corresponding w r ith some differences in the fruit, but 

 requires verification in a great proportion of the species. The 

 whole genus requires a thorough revision, and the more so as 

 there appear to be several unpublished species in our collections. 

 The genus Diplochlamys, a single Malayan species, will have to 

 be included in Mallotus, differing only in the number of sepals of 

 the female flower, which is variable in the whole genus, and in 

 this species double the usual number, which suggested the idea 

 that half of them w r ere in fact an involucre. There are also two 

 or three species differing from all others in the styles united to 

 above the middle in a slender column as in Tragia : they have been 

 proposed as a distinct section, or even genus, under the name of 

 Stylanthus ; but this is so little in accord with the habit or other 

 characters, that of two species known to Mueller only by their 

 male flowers, and united in the ' Prodromus ' under the 



name 



i 



(Wall 



be a Stylanthus, whilst the other (Wall. /. c. n. 0094) is an 

 ordinary Mallotus with the styles free from the base. 



