466 EUPHOKBIACE^ (Pram). \_Acalyplia 



ACALYPHA, Linn. 



Floicers monoecious, very rarely dicecious ; petals ; disc 0. Male : 

 Calyx closed in bud, splitting into 4 valvate lobes. Stamens usually 

 8; attached to a slightly raised receptacle; filaments free ;. anther- 

 cells distinct, spreading, oblong or linear, usually flexuous, 2-valved. 

 Rudimentary (wa/-^ 0. Female: Calyx 3-4-partite ; lobes almost 

 free, imbricate, very small. Ovary 3-celled ; ovules solitary in each 

 cell ; styles free or connate below, laciniate or denticulate, very 

 rarely entire or merely 2-lobed. Capsule 3-celled, slightly 3-lobed, 

 usually small and breaking up into 2 valved cocci. Seeds ellipsoid 

 or subglobose ; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy ; cotyledons broad, 

 flat. 



HerbSj shrubs or trees ; leaves alternate, 3-7-nerved from the base, the central 

 nerve usually also penninerved ; margin usually toothed ; petiole usually distinct ; 

 inflorescence various, axillary or terminal or both, androgynous or 1-sexual, when 

 androgj'nous the female flowera usually basal, rarely "apical, when 1-sexual the 

 male in axillary spikes below the female, rarely in axillary spikelets above, more 

 usually in a close-set terminal spike, rarely in a loose terminal panicle ; occasionally 

 terminal female spikes and axillary male spikes on separate plants or on distinct 

 branches of same plant ; male flowers very small, glomerate in axils of small 

 bracts, arranged in amentaceous spikes ; female flowers solitary or paired iii the 

 axil of a toothed or lobed bract which becomes foliaceous in fruit. 



DiSTRiB. Species about 300, throughout the warmer regions of both hemispheres ; 

 a few in extra-tropical Africa and America. 



Acali/pha patens^ Milll. Arg. (DC . Prodr. xv. ii. 848), described from a specimen sj.ip- 

 poaed to be South African, is the West Indian .4, chamadrifoUa^ Miill. Arg. (I.e. 879). 



Spikes normally 2-sexual ; leaves distinctly to long-petioled : 

 Shrubs or small trees : 



r 



Spikes with a perfect terminal female flower and only 



male flowers below ; branches spinescent (1) sonderiana. 



Spikes with a perfect basal female flower and only male 



flow^ers above ; branches unarmed (2) glahrata. 



Herbs, annual ; spikes with several female flowers below 

 and often one or more terminal abortive female 

 flowers beyond the males : 

 Spikes more or less clustered towards tips of branches ( 3 ) glomerata. 



Spikes uniformly disposed along stems and branches : 

 Female bracts about 20 -toothed ; teeth narrow 



lacinulate ... (4) ciliata. 



Female bracts 15- or fewer-toothed : 

 Stems simple below ; female bracts triangular 



dentate , (5) indica. 



Stems much branched at the base ; female bracts 



crenulate ( 6 ) segetalis. 



Spikes normally 1-sexual : 



Leaves distinctly to long-petioled ; plants always moncc- 

 cious : 



Female flowers in few-flowered spikelets in leaf-axils 

 above the male spikes, very rarely aggregated in a 

 large terminal spike ; stems slender, prostrate or 

 climbing ; female bracts J in. across or larger ... ( 7 ) decumhenS. 



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