Picrodendron EUPHORBIACE. LJ7~. 



reticulate with fine incshes. Mali' flou.'i.-r* : I -tracts 1-2-1-5 mm. 1. ; 

 anthers about 1 mm. 1. ; filaments shorter. F<-niab' Jloicrrs : Sepals 4 or 5, 

 valvate, more or less unequal, slightly toothed, 3-5(-sj mm. 1., linear- 

 lanceolate. Style columnar. Drupe orange-yellow, ahout 2 cm. in diam., 

 indehisceut. Seed : rhaphe within the furrow of the seed passing out 

 anteriorly info a lineai: black chalaza, and terminating between the lower 

 lobes of the seed ; edible, but should be eaten with caution. 



7. CROTON L.* 



Trees or shrubs usually more or less covered with brownish 

 or whitish stellate hairs or with scales. Leaves usually alternate, 

 sometimes with 2 (-several) glands at the apex of the petiole 

 above, or at base of midrib beneath, or at base of limb beneath, 

 entire, or serrate, sometimes ciliate with glands. Flowers 

 monoecious or rarely dioecious (in C, linearis and C. discolor), with 

 petals in male flowers, and in female flowers of C. ylalellux 

 (rudimentary or wanting in other Jamaican species), spicate or 

 subracemose at the apex of branches, or sometimes axillary as 

 well as terminal, the male along the upper part of the rhachis, 

 the female on the lower part, solitary under each bract, or some- 

 times one with two or three male under each bract below. Male 

 flowers : Receptacle generally hairy. Calyx of 5 (4, 6) segments, 

 equal in Jamaican species, valvate or narrowly imbricate. 

 Petals 5 (4). Disk represented by glands. Stamens generally 

 10-20 ; filaments bent and anthers pendulous in the bud, both 

 erect in the flower. Rudiment of ovary wanting. Female 

 flowers : Calyx-segments generally equal, but unequal in 

 C. ylandulosns and C. hirtus, sometimes increasing in size after 

 flowering. Disk ring-like or of distinct scales at the base of the 

 calyx. Ovary 3-celled ; styles once or twice divided : ovules 

 solitary in the cells. Capsule splitting up into 2-valved cocci. 

 Seeds smooth with a small caruncle. 



Species nearly 700, very widely dispersed in the tropics, and 

 a few in America outside the tropics. 



Leaves entire or subentire. 



Margin not ciliate with glair . 



Sands at base of leaf or apex of petiole. 

 Dioecious ; leaves 2-5 cm. 1. ; glands at apex 

 of petiole above. 



a linear-oblong ; nerves not obvious 

 li'.-neath 1. C. litit'u, . 



Leaves oblong to roundish-elliptical; 



nerves prominent beneath 2. C. discolor. 



* The ornamental garden " Crotons" do not belong to this genus, but 

 to Codi;iian, especially to Codinnm rarii'natnm. The species are : 

 of the islands in the southern Pacific and the Malay Archipelago. 



T 2 



