Species novae ex ,Hookers Icones Plantarum". 271 
Arbores vel frutices glaberrimi omnibus partibus latice acridissimo 
repletis, ramis primo obtuse angulatis vetustis uti trunco teretibus cortice 
tenui confragoso tectis, lignum subspongiosum, Folia crassa, carnosa, 
versus apices ramorum approximata, stipulata; stipulae post folia lapsa 
ad cicatricum latera in spinas conicas ecrescentes. Cyathia in axillis 
foliorum summorum in dichasia simplicia vel composita disposita, bracteis 
oppositis carnosis saepe geminiferis suffulta. 
Species unica in Africa occidentali indigena. 
28. Elaeophorbia drupifera (Thonn.) Stapf, l. c., tab. 2823, p. 2. 
Syn.: Euphorbia drupifera Thonn. in Schum. and Thonn., Beskr. Guin. 
Pl. p. 250; Pax in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. vol XXXIV, p. 68. E. 
Renouardi Pax in Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. VIII, p. 61. 
Arbor ad 15 m alta; truncus inermis, cinereus; rami crassi, juniores 
succulenti, primo 4-6 angulati. Folia obovato vel interdum obcordato- 
cuneata, 6 —20 cm longa, 4—7,5 cm lata, nervis lateralibus paucis obs- 
euris perobliquis; petiolus brevissimus vel ad 10 lin. longus, validus. 
Pedunculi 2,5—4 cm longi. Cyathium viride, 8—12 mm diam. Drupa 
forma et magnitudine admodum varia, cerasum vel olivam vel nucem 
juglandis referens, viridis, ad 5 cm longa, obtusissima vel acuta; pu- 
tamen globosum vel globoso ellipsoideum, sectione transversa orbiculari 
vel subtrigona, ad 14 mm longum, ad 10 mm diam. Semina fusca vel 
fusco-grisea, laevia, haud nitida. 
Upper Guinea: Gold Coast; common in the Accra plains, W. H. 
Johnson, 605, 1053; Kpong, Farmar, 480; without precise locality, 
Thonning. Dahomey; near Porto Novo, and in other localitis 
E. Poisson. 
The generic differences between Euphorbia and Elaeophorbia lie 
entirely in their fruits, the fruit of Euphorbia being a capsule which 
breaks up into 3 cocci, each coccus dehiscing loculicidally and elastically 
from below, whilst the fruit of Elaeophorbia is a drupe with a hard stone 
which under pressure, possibly also by excessive drying, may break up 
into three perfectly inelastic valves bearing the hard and narrow septa 
along their middle line. The septa possess a groove, corresponding to 
the angles of the axis, which passes into the pores traversing the 
valves some distance below the apex. In the growing fruit these pores 
are filled with vascular strands passing from the axis to the exocarp; 
in the germination stage they evidently act as channels for the conveyance 
of water to the seeds. The larger pore at the base of the stone origi- 
nates in a similar way be the decay of a portion of the tissue, and no 
doubt fulfils a similar function. 
