950 CXXII. EUPHORBIACE (PRAIN). [ Plukenetia. 
membranous, ovate or ovate-oblong, rather abruptly acuminate, base 
rounded or wide cuneate, margin crenate-dentate, often very minutely 
so, 4 in. long, 1#-2 in, wide, 3-nerved from the base ; secondary nerves 
3-4 on each side, glabrous; petiole 14-2 in. long, glabrous ; stipules 
minute. Racemes axillary, subpaniculate; peduncles } in. long and 
rhachis puberulous; male flowers in bracteolate clusters of 3-5 at the 
apices of secondary puberulous branches js-} in. long; pedicels slender, 
glabrous, } in. long, jointed at the base; female flowers at the apices of 
a single or of two subopposite puberulous subbasal secondary branches ; 
female pedicels glabrous, very short, jointed at the bracteoles. Male: 
Calyx subglobose, glabrous, valvately 4-lobed. Stamens about 40; 
anthers subglobose; filaments with minute inter-staminal glands. 
Female: Calyx puberulous, 4-lobed. Disk 0. Ovary at first pilose, soon 
glabrescent, 4-celled, stoutly 4-winged ; style stout, cylindric, slightly 
widened upwards with 4 shortly ovate, cruciformly spreading, finely 
fimbriate stigmas. Capsule thickly coriaceous, 3 in. across, with 
+ thickly coriaceous radially spreading wide-ovate wings 4 in. long 4 in. 
deep projecting from each valve and 4 raised commissural ridges midway 
between the wings, opening at the apex to expose the seed. Seed sub- 
globose, 1 in. long, almost as wide; testa thin, brown, subcrustaceous ; 
albumen firmly fleshy, pale yellow.—DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 769. Tetra- 
carpidium Staudtii, Pax in Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 329. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone: without precise locality, Scott-Elliot, 4118! 
Southern Nigeria: Oban, Zalbot, 1371! 1384! Modakeke, Foster, 205! Akwa, 
Thomas, 171! Cameroons: various localities, Mann, 2202! Winkler, 1431! 
Volkens,9! Mannsfeld, 42! Staudt, 558! 783! 802! Lederman», 296! 1145! 
1183! 1184! 1207! 1250! 6138! Buchholz, 102! Zenker, 1583! 2234! 2551! 
3273! 3311! 3394! Fernando Po: Clarence Peak, Buchholz ! 
Lower Guinea. Spanish Guinea: Sierra de Crystal, Mann, 1739! Gaboon: 
without precise locality, Klaine, 2284! 
South Central. Belgian Congo: Eastern Province; Fort Beni, Mildbraed, 
2292! 
Perhaps polygamo-diccicus; sometimes the female flowers may be absent 
from an individual raceme or even from an entire specimen; whether individual 
plants may be wholly male has not been noted. Usually as soon as the female 
flowers have been fertilised the portion of the inflorescence which has male flowers 
fallsaway. Klaine’s specimens from the Gaboon have the pedicels puberulous like 
the rhachis. Scott-Elliot states that the fruit (? seed, which yields a commercial oil) 
is edible. Perhaps Dr. Pax is justified in thinking that this should be considered 
the type of a distinct genus. 
2. P. hastata, Miill. Arg. in Flora, 1864, 469. Herb; stems 
several from a woody base, slender, twining, puberulous. Leaves short- 
petioled, firmly membranous, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acute, base 
shallowly or deeply hastate or sagittate, margin finely dentate, 13-3 in. 
long, 4-2 in. wide, sparingly hirsute on the nerves and elsewhere scabri- 
dulous on both surfaces; petiole slender, $-}-in. long, pubescent or 
scabridulous ; stipules lanceolate, small. Racemes simple, spike-like, 
lateral or leaf-opposed, 1-2 in. long; male flowers many, female solitary, 
subbasal; bracts linear-lanceolate, males several-flowered ; pedicels 
