102 



FLOKA OF .lAMAlCA 



Eubraclnon 



6. EUBRACHION Hook. f. 



Shrub, iiuic'h branched. Leaves reduced to peltate scales, 

 spirally arranged. Spikes crowded in a kind of raceme at the ends 

 of branchlets. Bracts scale-like, roundish-ovate, the lowest 

 empty, persistent, the intermediate with their male flowers 

 deciduous, the upper enclosing female flowers persistent. Flowers 

 sessile in the axils of bracts, monoecious in the same spike, parts 

 of the flowers in threes. Male flowers : petals 3, springing from 

 a short, top-shaped receptacle ; stamens 3 ; pistil rudimentary, 



Fig. 30. EubracJiion ambigimm Engl, y&w jamaicense Kr. & I'rb. 



A, Portion of plant in flower. 



B, Flower-spike. 



C, Male flower. 



D, Stamen. 



E, Fruit. 



F, Fruit cut lengthwise. 



G, Germinating seed. 



H, Germinating seed attached 



to twig by its viscous 



covering. 

 e, endosperm ; c, embryo ; 



V, viscid mass. 



forming a flat 3-lobed disk, the lobes alternate with the petals. 

 Female flowers: stamens wanting; ovary broadly obovoid, disk 

 as in male flowers ; style from middle of disk very short, with 

 obtuse stigma. Berry obovoid-subglobose, crowned with the 

 persistent petals ; pericarp fleshy with a thick viscid layer above 

 the seed ; seed depressed-globular ; embryo cylindrical in the 

 median line of tough endosperm. 



Species 1, in Jamaica, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. 



E. ambiguum Eiujl. var. jamaieense Kr. & Urh. in Engl. Bot. 

 Jalirh. xxiv. 31 (1897). (Fig. 30.) 



