MR. G. BENTHAM ON EUPH0RBIACEJ3. 259 



of Dalechampia, may be mentioned Acidoton and Platygyne in the 

 West Indies, and, diverging in a very different direction, Cnes- 

 tnone in Asia, all three genera monotypic. Dalechampia, out of 

 about 60 species, has only 10 in the Old World, chiefly Masca- 

 rene, but 2 or 3 in Africa, and as many in Asia, besides the D. 

 scandens common to both continents ; there are none in Australia. 

 The genus extends south of the tropics to the Cape in Africa, but 

 nowhere in the north beyond the tropics. The genus has no di- 

 visions marked in character except the two small sections Cremo- 

 phyllum and Rhopalostyles, both American. There are no genera 

 nearer allied to it than Tragia. 



Ihe subtribe Hippomanece is a natural one, and might almost 

 be treated of collectively as a large generally distributed group, 

 with a great American preponderance. It is, however, not so 

 uniform nor so completely isolated as the Eucrotonese. We have 

 first three very distinct genera, almost as much connected with 

 "JukenetieaB as with the typical Hippomaneae, viz. : — Mabea, about 

 16 species from tropical America ; Ophthalrnoblapton, 3 or 4 Bra- 

 zilian species ; and Omphalea, 7 species from tropical America and 

 1 trom Madagascar. We have then a series of 16 genera, all so 

 closely allied as to be sometimes regarded as sections of one 

 genus, but which have all distinctive characters of some import- 

 ance, except perhaps those which separate Sebastiania and Excce- 

 caria. Taking them, therefore, as we have adopted them for the 

 Genera, there is only one that is generally spread over the New 

 and the Old World, Sapium, with 25 species, of which 14 are 

 American, with but little divergence of specific character, 11 

 are dispersed over tropical Africa and Asia, but do not extend to 

 Australia. Two of these at least are much more marked than the 

 American ones, and scarcely congeners, though there is otherwise 

 no general difference between the species of the two continents. 

 Sebastiania, with about 40 American species, and Excoecaria, be- 

 tween 20 and 30 Old- World species extending from tropical 

 Africa to Australia and the Archipelago, are at least representative 

 genera. They are all tropical except one species from the 

 Southern United States of America. The American Sebastiania 

 form two or three rather distinct sectional groups ; and one spe- 

 cies, closely allied to some of the American ones, but perhaps really 

 distinct, is in the Old World a tropical weed of cultivation from 

 Africa to Australia. The Old- World Excoecarice have also one 

 or two rather distinct forms ; and there are a few West-Indian, 



