830 CXXII. EUPHORBIACEZ (PRAIN), | Caperonia. 
above ; free portion of filaments spreading ; anthers short, ovoid ; cells 2, 
dehiscing longitudinally, pendulous from tip of glandular connective. 
Rudimentary ovary cylindric, crowning the apex of the staminal column. 
Female: Sepals 5-6, rarely 8-10, generally unequal, imbricate, the 
outer smaller than the inner. Petals 5, subequal, narrower than the 
larger petals in the male. Disk 0. Ovary sessile, 3-celled ; ovules 
solitary in each cell; styles slightly connate at the base, ovate, deeply 
laciniate. Capsule 3-coccous; cocci 2-valved, beset externally with 
flattened or subulate processes mixed with or passing into gland-tipped 
sets. Seeds subglobose or oblong-globose ; testa very minutely punctate- 
reticulate, without a caruncle.—Erect annual herbs (the African 
species), with usually branching stems. Leaves alternate, shortly 
petioled. Flowers in lax axillary peduncled racemes, each solitary to a 
bract ; the upper males, the lower females. 
Species about 12, mostly in tropical South America, a few in Africa. 
Leaves palmately nerved at the base, their margins crenate ; 
male petals subequal; female sepals 6 . : . . 1. C. latifolia. 
Leaves pinnately nerved throughout. : 
Leaf-margins crenate; male petals unequal; female 
sepals 6; seeds globose, pale grey. : : . 2. OC. Buchanan. 
Leaf-margins serrate. 
Male petals unequal; female sepals usually 6, some- 
times 5. 
Seeds globose. 
Seeds deep blue-grey or nearly black 3. C. Stuhlmann. 
Seeds tawny or brownish . ; s ‘ . 4. C. palustris. 
Seeds oblong-globuse, pale yellow or tawny . . 5. C. senegalensis. 
Male petals usually subequal; female sepals 8-10; 
seeds oblong-globose, usually pale yellow or tawuy, 
occasionally black — . : = : 5 . 6. C. serrata. 
1. C. latifolia, Pax in Bolet. Soc. Brot. x. 159, An annual herb; 
stems simple, rather stout, soft, hispid upwards, 2 ft. high. Leaves 
short-petioled, ovate, acute, margin crenate, base rounded truncate or 
slightly cordate, 34-44 in. long, 13-24 in. wide, medium to dark green 
above, paler beneath, sparingly hispid especially on the nerves and oie 
cipally beneath, base 5-nerved, midrib giving off 5-8 nerves on eac 
side; petiole 4-4 in. long, hispid; stipules lanceolate, 2} lin. Jong, 
caducous. Racemes 14-2 in. long; rhachis and _ pedicels hispid . 
pubescent ; bracts small, linear-subulate. Male sepals 5, triangular, 
acute, almost glabrous. Petals 5, obovate-oblong, subequal, 7 
longer than the sepals. Stamens about 10; filaments short. Female 
sepals 6, unequal, 3 outer lanceolate, much smaller than the 3 inner, 
obovate-spathulate, acute. Petals 5, oblanceolate, obtuse, shorter than 
the inner sepals. Ovary closely beset with flattened acute ehewsgtir 
Capsule shortly muricate; accrescent sepals $-} in. long. Seeds no 
seen.—Pax in Engl. Jahrb. xix. 81. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: Victoria, Dusén, 281! 
Lower Guinea. Island of St. Thomas, Moller, 183! 
Also in South America and the West Indies. 
