Androstachys.| | OXXII, EUPHORBIACEX (HUTCHINSON). 744 
Flowers axillary on silky-hairy peduncles, males 3-nate, females solitary 
in each leaf-axil; male peduncles usually more or less connate, the 
lateral rather shorter than the central. 
A single endemic species. 
This genus has unfortunately been omitted from the key, but it may be at once 
distinguished from all the other African genera of Phyllanthee by the opposite 
leaves (they are opposite, but compound, in Oldfieldia), by the remarkable intra- 
petiolar stipules, and by the numerous stamens arranged on an elongated receptacle. 
1. A. Johnsonii, Prain in Kew Bulletin, 1908, 439. A tall 
hard-wooded tree, providing valuable timber; branchlets angular and 
articulated. Leaves opposite, decussate, ovate, obtuse, rounded or 
subcordate at the base, 14-2 in. long, 1-14 in. broad, entire, rigidly 
coriaceous, glabrous above, more or less silky-hairy below; stipular 
sheath ? in. long, silky-pubescent outside; petioles }-} in. long, silky- 
hairy. Flowers yellow ; peduncles }~-} in. leng. Males: Sepals peta- 
loid, lanceolate, with retuse or 2-lobed tips, long-pilose outside. 
Staminal axis 4-1 in. long. Females: Calyx-segments } in. long. 
Ovary densely pilose; style } in. long, silky. Capsule depressed, 4 in. 
long. Seeds } in. long, } in. broad; testa brown and shining.—Prain 
in Kew Bulletin, 1909, 201. 
Mozamb. Distr. Portuguese East Africa: Inhambane, O’ Neill ! near Beira, 
Johnson, 283 ! 
35. MICRODESMIS, Planch. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ili. 287. 
Flowers diccious. Petals present, conspicuous. Male flowers: 
Sepals 5 (rarely 4 or 6), imbricate. Petals the same in number as the 
Sepals, but larger, imbricate-contorted. Stamens 5 or 10, 1-2-seriate, 
when 2-seriate the outer series opposite the sepals, inserted on a fleshy. 
receptacle or disk adnate to the rudimentary ovary ; anthers erect, cells 
parallel or subparallel, distinct, dehiscing longitudinally. Rudimentary 
ovary columnar, ovoid or trifid. Female flowers: Perianth as in the 
male. Disk absent. Ovary fleshy, 2-3-celled ; styles short, bipartite, 
papillose-laciniate ; ovules solitary in each cell. Drupe indehiscent, 
rugose outside. Seeds with a membranous or slightly crustaceous testa ; 
albumen fleshy ; cotyledons ovate, flat.—Shrubs with alternate, shortly 
petiolate, entire or dentate penniveined leaves, pellucid-dotted in the 
African species. Flowers small, shortly pedicellate, fasciculate in the 
leaf-axils ; males often numerous, females few or nearly solitary. 
Species 3, the two following, and one extending from Ceylon to Southern China 
and the Malay Archipelago. 
Stamens inserted at the base of the rudimentary ovary; disk 
absent . aaa: : . ; A . . Ll. M. puberula, 
Stamens inserted on a fleshy disk surrounding and adnate to 
the rudimentary ovary . ‘ 5 2 ‘ x . 2. M. Zenkeri. 
1. M. puberula, Hook. f. ex Planch. in Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 758. A 
bush or shrub about 10 ft. high; branchlets slender, woody, pubescent. 
