238 MR. Q. BENTHAM OX EUPHORBfACE.E 



the second section, Pterococcus, should be referred, besides the 

 African and Asiatic species forming Mueller's section Hedraio- 

 styles, the American P. penninervia and P. verrucosa, placed in 

 the i Prodromus ' under Euplukeneiia. Angostylidium is a single 

 African shrub, which has not the twining stems of the majority 

 of species ; and the Peruvian Cylindrophora, of which I have seen 

 no specimen, must be very near it. Eragariopsis, a single Bra- 

 zilian twiner, has been adopted both by Mueller and Baillon as a 

 distinct genus, on account of the globular, almost fleshy receptacle 

 of the male flower. It appears, however, to me to differ less from 

 the typical Plulcenetice than Anabaina, a single Brazilian species 

 admitted as a section of Pluhenetia by both Mueller and Baillon. 

 Another distinctive character attributed to Fragariopsis is the 

 leaf-opposed racemes ; but this character is not quite constant, and 

 occurs occasionally in other sections ; nor is it strictly correct ; for 

 the insertion of the raceme is not exactly opposed to the leaf as 

 in Gelonium, but usually a trifle higher up and sometimes some- 

 what lateral. An unpublished species gathered by Pearce at 

 " Monterico," in South America, has the inflorescence and nearly 

 the male flowers of Fragariopsis, but with a different habit, and 

 the stylar column is that of Pterococcus ; and Moritzi's specimens, 

 n. 1661, from Tovar in Venezuela, represent a species with most 

 of the characters of Plukenetia, but the ovary is 2 -celled only, 

 and the style or stylar column is a flat, cushion-like though still 

 fleshy mass, shorter than the ovary itself. 8. Acidoton, a single 

 Jamaican species, a loosely branched shrub, not a climber, but 

 with the stinging hairs of the two following genera. 9. Platygyne, 

 a very distinct Cuban climber, with stinging hairs. 10. Tragia, 

 about 50 species, dispersed over the tropical regions of the New 

 and the Old World, and extending beyond the tropics into North 

 America and South Africa, all twiners or with low herbaceous 

 ascending stems. It forms a very well defined genus, but is 

 rather difficult to place well in the system. Its twining habit 

 and stinging hairs would associate it with some Plukenetia, but 

 the stylar column, though frequently well developed and some- 

 what fleshy, is sometimes slender or short as in some species of 

 Mallotus and other Acalypheae, with which it has evidently no 

 very close affinity. The species are distributed in the ' Prodro- 

 mus ' into eleven sections, some of which require modification. 

 Three, Eutragia and Ratiga from America and Tagira from the 

 Old World, comprising the great bulk of the species, all with 



