FI.OK'A OF JAMAICA 



near Moneague, Lord Wahinqham\ Long Mt., 900 ft.; Chelsea Hill and 

 Round Hill, St. Cruz Mts., 2000-2200 ft. ; hill behind Ferry quarry, 200 ft. ; 

 Inverness, Clarendon, 200 ft. ; Harris \ Fl. Jam. G149, G330, 9055, 9090, 9702, 

 10,043, 11,686. Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. 

 Cruz, St. Jan, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew, St. Lucia. 



A straggling shrub, prostrate to 5 ft. high, with whitish bark, and all 

 parts of the plant grey- whitish or purplish. Leaves 2-8 cm. 1., lanceolate 

 or lanceolate-elliptical, apex acute, base subacute, serrulate, adpresscd- 

 pubescent, glabrescent, or glabrate ; nerves one on each side from, the base, 

 otherwise pinnate, prominent beneath. Racemes I cm. 1. or less. Flown:* 

 greenish-white or whitish. Male flowers : Calyx about 2*5 mm. 1. ; seg- 

 ments 4, narrowly elliptical. Petals 4, as long as calyx, broadly elliptical, 

 tapering to a very acute base, sometimes sub-3-lobed above. 'Stamens 4, 

 longer than the calyx. Female flowers: Calyx-segments 5, 3 mm. 1., 

 increasing to 4- 5 or 6 mm. in fruit, oblong-elliptical, oblong-oblanceolate 

 to sublinear in fruit, puberulous all over. Petals minute, about '5 mm. 1., 

 lanceolate. Ovary villose ; styles villose, 2-forked once, each branch 2-lobed 

 at apex. Capsule 3-4 mm. 1., 5-6 mm. br. Seeds 2-2 -5 mm. 1., net- veined, 

 obovoid. 



9. CAPERONIA St. Hil. 



Erect annual herbs, growing in swarnpy places, stems succu- 

 lent. Leaves alternate ; stipules persistent. Flowers monoecious 

 (in W. Indian species), with petals, in 2-sexual axillary spikes or 

 spike-like racemes, each subtended by a bract, the upper flowers 

 male, the lower female. Disk wanting. Male flowers : Calyx- 

 segments 5 or 6, valvate. Petals 5, imbricate, attached at the 

 base of the staminal column and raised above the calyx. Stamens 

 usually 10 in two whorls round the column; anthers ovoid, the 

 cells separated by a short connection, and affixed at the middle, 

 or subpendulous. Rudiment of the ovary at the apex of the 

 column. Female flowers : Sepals 5 or 6, imbricate, generally 

 unequal, the outer smaller than the inner. Petals 5. Ovary 

 3-celled ; styles short, cut into many segments ; ovules solitary 

 in the cells. Capsule breaking up into three 2-valved cocci, 

 spiny. Seeds subglobular, without a caruncle, very minutely 

 dotted in a network pattern. 



Species 33, natives of the tropics in America and Africa. 



C. eastaneifolia St. Hil. Bern. Bras. 245 (1824) ; A. Eiclt. in 

 Sagra Cub. xi. 213 ; MuelL.Arg in DC. Prodr. xv. pt. 2, 754 & in 

 Fl. Bras. xi. pt. 2, 324 : Pax in Engl. Pflanzenreicli iv. 147. vi. 31. 

 C. nervosa A. Rich. loc. cit. 213 (1850). C. palustris Griseb. FL 

 Brit. W. Ind. 43 (1859) (non St. Hil.). Croton castaneifolium 

 L. Sp, PL 1004 (1753); H. B. & K. Nov. Gen, & Sp. ii. 70; 

 Geisel. Crot. Monog. 60. (Fig. 93.) Specimen in Herb. Linn, in 

 cover Croton. 



Distin \ Cornwall, St. Elizabeth, Harris \ Fl. Jam. 12,096. Cuba, Is. of 

 Pines, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, B. Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay. 



Herb about 1 ft. high ; stem, youngest portion with adpressed hairs, 



