78 Eltphorbiacca;. [SebasHaftia, 



43. SEBASTIAN! A, Spreng. 



An annual herb; 1. alt., distant; fl. monoecious, apetalous,. 

 male very minute in short axillary or leaf-opposed spikes,, 

 fern, solitary at the base of the male or axillary; male fl.: — - 

 cal. minute, 5-lobcd, membranous, not covering the stam. in 

 bud; stam. 1-4, fil. distinct; pistillode o; fem. fl.: — sep. 3,. 

 larger than in male, obovate, acute, lacerate and ciliate,. 

 2-glandular within ; ov. much exserted, 3-celled, with i ovule 

 in each cell, styles 3, small, not bifid; fr. a small glabrous 

 3-lobed capsule, subglobosely oblong, valves with a double 

 row of small spines on the back, separating from a persistent 

 columella; seeds barrel-shaped, with a short strophiole, endo- 

 sperm fleshy, cotyledons broad. — Sp. 40; all American but the 

 following. 



S. Chamaelea, Miiell. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv. ii. 1 175 (1866). Rat-^ 

 pitawakka, .S'. 



Herm. Mus. 22, -},■}). Burm. Thes. 59. Fl. Zeyl. n. 335. Tragia 

 Chaincclea^ L. Sp. PI. 981. Moon, Cat. 62. Microstachys Chamcclea, 

 A. Juss. ; Thw. Enum. 270. C. P. 2132. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 475. Burm. Thes. t. 25. 



An annual glabrous herb, 1-2 ft., with numerous prostrate 

 or ascending slender branches from the root; 1. small, distant, 

 J-3 in., nearly sessile, linear, acute at base, obtuse, apiculate, 

 very minutely serrate, glabrous, often rather glaucous beneath ; 

 stip. ovate, acute, ciliate; fr. under \ in., glabrous, smooth 

 except for the rows of spines. 



Open places and waste ground ; common. Y\. Oct. ; yellowish. 

 Tropics of the old world generally. 

 Habit of an annual Euphorbia. 



CXXL— URTICACE.^. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, some with milky juice ; 1. rarely 

 opposite, often oblique at the base, rarely compound, stipu- 

 late ; infl. various, sometimes immersed or on the surface of 

 a fleshy disk, or, in Ficus, enclosed in a fleshy receptacle ; 

 fl. unisexual, rarely polygamous, small ; sep. distinct or forming 

 a lobcd or toothed cal. ; stam. as many as and opposite the 

 perianth divisions, or fewer, fil. erect or incurved in bud ; 

 pistillode of male small, or o ; ov. superior, i -celled, with one 



