674 CXXI1. EUPHORBIACEA (HUTCHINSON). | Drypetes. 
29. DRYPETES, Vahl: Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 278. 
Flowers dimcious. Petals absent. Male flowers: Buds often 
globose. Sepals 4 or 5, broad, imbricate, usually coriaceous. Stamens 
3-0, inserted around and at the base of a central flat concave or 
rarely cupular disk; filaments free; anthers erect, often large, cells 
parallel and dehiscing longitudinally. Rudimentary ovary not present 
or represented by a small conical production in the middle of the disk. 
Female flowers: Calyx as in the male. Disk hypogynous, annular or 
cupular. Ovary 1-4-celled; styles short or absent; stigmas thick, 
flattened, bifid or undivided and more or less reniform ; ovules 2 in 
each cell. Fruits globose, ellipsoid or ovoid, indebiscent; pericarp 
thick, woody, 1-4-celled. Seeds solitary by abortion ; albumen fleshy ; 
embryo straight; cotyledons flat and broad.—Trees or shrubs ; leaves 
alternate, coriaceous or chartaceous, entire or toothed ; stipules caducovs, 
rarely persistent. Male and female flowers fasciculate in the axils 
ot the leaves, or produced on the older branches or the stem, usually 
pedicellate. 
Over 70 species, chiefly in the Old-World Tropics, a few in the West Indies and 
South America. 
Like Baillon, I have been unable to separate the Old-World genus Cyclostemon, 
Blume (1825), from the New-World Drypetes, Vahl (1807). J. Miiller in De Candolle’s 
Prodromus placed the former in the.subtribe Cyclostemonee, calling the central body 
in the male flower a “ disk,” whilst the latter he placed in the subtribe Securinege@, 
with the central body in the male flower designat.d “ rudimentary ovary.” ‘This 
central body in each so-called genus, however, is identical in form and structure, and 
is usually a flat flesh), or more rarely cupular disk, with or mostly without a small 
concave production in the middle which, as pointed out by Baillon, could scarcely be 
looked upon as a rudimentary ovary. The stamens in the American species of Drypetes 
are mostly either the same or double the number of the sepals, but this is also the 
case in many of those from Africa, and this character, if used to re-establish the two 
genera, would produce quite ambiguous results. It might also be pointed out that an 
unnamed specimen of an apparently undescribed species, collected by Glaziou at Rio 
Janeiro, which, from the number of stamens and the locality, would be placed in 
Drypetes, although not the same, might easily be mistaken for Cyclostemon Principum, 
Mill. Arg., from the Cameroons. 
As many species of Drypetes have a 1-celled ovary, Sibangea, Oliv., which was 
distinguished from Cyclostemon by this character, must therefore be also included. 
Stipules laciniate, persistent or subpersistent. : 
Stipules 3-3 in. long; sepals of female4 . ‘ . 1. D. laciniata. 
Stipules about } in. long; sepals of female 5 : . 2. D. verrucosa. 
Stipules entire or rarely slightly toothed. 
Stipules large, imbricate, foliaceous, 14-2 in. long, 
2 in. broad “ f S . ° : 
Stipules smaller, not imbricate, usually less than 3 in. 
long and 3 in. broad. 
*Flowers fasciculate in the leaf-axils of the young 
shoots. : 
tLeaves with entire or slightly undulate margins. 
Stipules conspicuous, subpersistent, ovate or 
lanceolate, }~3 in. long. 
Stipules fin. long . ‘ ; : : 
3. D. magnistipula. 
4. D, Mildbradis. 
