Phyllanthus.|  CXXII. EUPHORBIACEH (HUTCHINSON). 698 
dehiscence then appearing transverse and often continuous between the 
cells; connective often slightly produced. Rudimentary ovary absent 
(a slight production of the staminal column present in 17, ?. //ilde- 
brandtii). Female flowers: Sepals asin the male, but often larger. Disk 
hypogynous, usually sducer-shaped or cupular, entire, variously toothed 
or lobed, or rarely of separate glands. Ovary usually 3-celled, sessile 
or rarely slightly stipitate ; styles 3, rarely absent, free or partially 
connate, bifid or bilobed (rarely entire), the arms slender and sometimes 
swollen at the apex ; ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule dry or more rarely 
fleshy, dehiscent or subindehiscent, breaking up into 2-valved cocci. 
Seeds transversely trigonous, convex on the back and often longitudinally 
sulcate or pitted, without a strophiole; testa membranous or crustaceous ; 
albumen fleshy ; embryo straight or slightly incurved ; cotyledons flat 
and straight or rarely flexuous.—Herbs, shrubs, or trees, of various 
habit. Leaves alternate in all the African species, entire, often dis- 
tichous, the flowering branchlets frequently simulating pinnate leaves. 
Flowers small, axillary, the males mostly numerous and fasciculate, 
usually pedicellate, the females few or solitary, pedicellate. 
About 450 species, spread throughout the tropical regions of both hemispheres. 
_ Glochidion, Forst., which was separated from Phyllanthus by Sir J. D. Hooker 
in the Flora of British India, is not represented in Africa. 
*Flowering branchlets fasciculate. 
tStamens 6, free or nearly so; flowering branchlets 
arrested : oe es 3 - . Il. P. kirkianus. 
ttStamens 4 or 5, two or three of the filaments con- 
nate, the remainder free and shorter; flowering 
branchlets well developed. 
Stamens 4. 
Flowers diwcious . : x - . 2. P. lalambensis, 
Flowers moneecious 5 : g . 8. P. guineensis, 
Stamens 5, 
Flowers diccious; flowering branchlets sur- : 
rounded at the base by numerous thick spines 4. P. Englert. 
Flowers monecious; flowering branchlets not : 
: spiny at the base : : : ; . 5. P. reticulatus. 
tttStamens 4 or 5, all the filaments free. ; 
Flowers monecious. 
Flowers produced on clustered slender leafless 
racemes of fascicles which arise in the axil of : 
a leafy flowerless shoot; leaves 3~3in.long 6. P. floribundus. 
Flowers produced on slender leafy branchlets ; 
leaves 2-7 lin. long. 
Leaves oblong, flaccid ; disk of the female 
flower crenulate . . : ° : 
Leaves obovate or elliptic, rigid; disk of the : 
female flower entire : . . 8. P. loandensts. 
Flowers diceciovs. 
{Stamens 5. 
Male flowers arranged in slender leafless 
racemes of fascicles ‘ ° : 9. P. polyanthus. 
Male flowers on leafy clustered braneblets . 10. P. physocarpus. 
7. P. Dinklagei. 
