EUPHORBIACEAE 285 
Very common in thickets, hedges, etc., fl. all the year; widely distributed 
in the Philippines. Tropical Africa, Asia, and Malaya. 
2. P. URINARIA L. 
An erect, branched, slender, glabrous or nearly glabrous herb 10 to 40 
em high, the branches angled. Leaves distichous, imbricate, alternate, 
pale beneath, sessile, elliptic-oblong to oblong, thin, 5 to 10 mm long, ob- 
tuse or apiculate, base slightly oblique; stipules lanceolate. Flowers very 
small, 5-merous, axillary, about 1 mm in diameter, sessile or very shortly 
pedicelled. Sepals greenish. Stamens 3; filaments united below; anthers 
erect, the slits vertical. Capsules about 2 mm in diameter, muricate or 
smooth, of 3 dehiscent cocci. 
In waste places, occasional, fl. all the year; widely distributed in the 
Philippines, probably introduced. Tropics generally. 
3. P. NIRURI L. 
An erect, slender, branched, glabrous herb, 10 to 60 em high, the branch- 
lets distichous. Leaves distichous, often imbricate, oblong to elliptic- 
oblong, obtuse or rounded, very shortly petioled, rather pale beneath, 5 
to 8 mm long, the stipules small, subulate. Flowers axillary, shortly pedi- 
celled, whitish or pale-green, about 0.5 mm long, the sepals 5, oblong, 
green, margined with white, the pedicels distinct, 1 to 2 mni long. Anthers 
3, opening by transverse slits. Capsules depressed-globose or globose, 
smooth, 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter. 
In waste places, roadsides, etc., occasional, fl. all the year; widely distrib- 
uted in the Philippines, probably introduced. Tropics generally. 
4, P. simplex Retz. 
A slender, erect, simple or slightly branched, glabrous, annual herb 20 
to 50 em high, the stems compressed, usually purplish. Leaves two- 
ranked, subsessile or shortly petioled, oblong-linear, acute, or obtuse, 1.5 
to 3 cm long, 6 to 9 mm wide, the stipules small, acuminate. Flowers 
axillary, solitary, the males very small, on short pedicels, the females with 
pedicels 8 mm long or less. Capsules depressed-globose, 3 to 3.5 mm in 
diameter, smooth. 
In open grass lands, scattered, fil. all the year; throughout the Philip- 
pines in the cultivated areas, possibly introduced. India to China, Malaya, 
and Polynesia. 
4. GLOCHIDION Forster 
Erect shrubs or trees, glabrous or hairy, monoecious or dioecious. Leaves 
alternate, 2-ranked, entire. Flowers small, in axillary clusters, apetalous, 
without disk-glands or scales. Male flowers: Sepals 6, rarely 5, imbricate 
in 2 series. Anthers 3 to 8, connate in an oblong column. Rudimentary 
ovary none. Female flowers: Calyx about as in the males, sometimes 
toothed. Ovary 3- to many-celled; styles connate in a column which is 
toothed or lobed at the tip; ovules 3 in each cell. Capsule globose or 
depressed-globose, dry or fleshy, of 3 to many 2-valved cocci, which are 
longitudinally lobed or ridged. (Greek ‘‘an angular end,” from the style- 
characters. ) 
Species about 175, tropical Asia to Polynesia and Australia, 29 in the 
Philippines. 
