PhyUantlms^ euphorbiacE/E (Hutcbiuson). 387 



glands usually fleshy, smooth or more or less wartecl. Stamens 2-6, 

 in the middle of the flower ; filaments free or connatej or some free 

 and the others connate ; anthers 2-celIed, oblong or rounded, cells 

 parallel and dehiscing longitudinally, or diverging from the apex, 

 the line of dehiscence then appearing transverse and often continuous 

 between the cells ; connective often slightly produced. Rudimentary 

 ovary absent. Female flowers : Segals as in the male but often 

 larger. Disc hypogynous, usually saucer-shaped or cupular, entire, 

 variously toothed or lobed, or rarely of separate glands. Ovary 

 usually S-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 sub- 

 indehiscent, breaking up into 2-valved cocci. Seeds 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 distichous, the flowering branchlets frequently simulating 

 pinnate leaves ; flowers small, axillary, the males mostly nurnerouB and fasciculate, 

 usually i>edicellate, the females few and mostly solitary. 



DiSTPviB. About 450 species, spread throughout the troi>ical regions of both 

 hemispheres. 



Phyllanihus pcrvilleamis, Miill. Arg. in Linnaea, xsxil. 13 ; KirganeUa pervil- 

 Uana, Bail!. Adansonia, ii. 50, is attributed in the Index Kewensis to South 

 Africa, but seems to be confined to the ^lascarene Islands. 



Kirganelia degems, Juss. (— PhyllantJius Casticum, Soyer-"Willemet) is quoted 

 t>y Baillon (Adansonia, iii. 165) from the Cape, and Sonnerat's specimen is 

 niarked so in the Jussieu Herbarium in Paris. Baillon suggests that it ia 

 cultivated at the Cape ; but it seems more probable that the label is wrong, and 

 that the specimen is really from Mauritius. 



*Stamens 4-5 ; filaments free to the base or only one or 

 two connate aud the remainder free : 

 Large woody much-branched shrubs or trees : 



Flowers dicccious : 

 Disc of the male flowers annular, entire •.. ( 1 ) discoideus. 



Disc of the male flowers composed of separate 



Ldands ( 2 ) flacourtioides 



I 



Flowers monoecious ; 



Branches conspicuously verrucose ; flowering 

 branchlets not produced in the axils of 

 flowerless branches y-^) Tcrrucosus. 



Branches smooth or very slightly verrucose ; 

 flowering branchlets produced in the axil of 

 a leafy flowerless shoot (4) reticulatus. 



^ 2 c 2 



