Agrostistachys. | CXXII. EUPHORBIACEX (PRAIN). 829 
obovate. Stamens 5-20, inserted on a convex glabrous or pubescent 
receptacle ; filaments filiform, free or slightly united below, surrounded 
or not by a ring of extra-staminal glands; anther-cells pendulous from 
a thickened connective, the cells nearly free, dehiscing longitudinally. 
Rudimentary ovary present or 0. Female: Calyx as in the male. 
Petals as in the male, but very deciduous. Disk annular, thick, with 
or without minute staminodes. Ovary 3-celled ; ovules in each cell 
solitary; styles 3, spreading, 2-partite. Capsule dry or somewhat 
fleshy, breaking up into 3 2-valved cocci; endocarp crustaceous. Seeds 
subglobose ; testa crustaceous, shining; albumen thick, fleshy ; embryo 
straight or slightly curved; cotyledons broad, flat.—Trees with glabrous 
branches. Leaves alternate, petioled or subsessile, large, entire or 
dentate, peninnerved ; stipules often leaving an annular scar. Flowers 
minute, in lateral cylindric close or open spike-like racemes; males 
several to a bract, females solitary. 
Species 8 or 9, one in our area, one in the Mascarene Islands, the rest South-east 
Asiatic 
l. A. africana, Mill. Arg. in Flora, 1864, 534. Small tree, 
20 ft. high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves distinctly petioled, firmly 
membranous, oblong, acute, base wide-cuneate or almost rounded, 7-15 in. 
long, 3-6 in. wide, rather pale green, dull and glabrous on both surfaces, 
with 2 basal glands on the upper side at the junction of blade and 
petiole; petiole glabrous, 1-2 in. long, narrowly winged towards the 
apex: stipules glabrous, striate, connate in an acuminate sheath 1-1} in. 
long enclosing the next succeeding leaf and falling off as this expands 
faving a horizontal scar. Racemes axillary, 2-3 in. long, somewhat 
spike-like, rhachis sparingly puberulous ; bracts striate, subscarious, 
ovate-oblong, 2-fid, resembling the stipules but smaller, only 2—24 lin. 
long and as much apart; pedicels 2-3 lin. long, puberulous, articulate 
near the base. Male: Calyx closed in bud, glabrous, irregularly 
valvately lobed ; lobes reflexed. Petals 5, white, imbricate. Stamens 
20-21 ; filaments free, glabrous, 4-seriately arranged on a convex pilose 
receptacle ; receptacular glands 0. Female: Calyx and petals as in 
themales. Disk thick, annular, accompanied by minute staminodes like 
Short male filaments. Ovary densely pilose. Fruit not seen.—DC. 
todr, xv. ii. 725; Hiern in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 973; Pax in Bolet. 
Soc. Brot. x. 160, 
Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, at 4000 ft., Mann, 582! 
Lower Guinea. Island of St. Thomas, Mann, 1079! Welwitsch, 441! 
Quintas, 231 
49, CAPERONIA, St. Hil.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 304. 
Flowers moncecious, rarely diwcious, dichlamydeous. Male: Calyx 
closed in bud, ovoid or subglobose, splitting into 5 valvate lobes. 
Petals 5, imbricate, subequal, or with the two lowest distinctly or much 
Smaller than the other 3 or casually obsolete. Disk obsolete. Stamens 
usually 10; filaments connate below in a column, distinctly 2-seriate 
