CXT. EUPHORBIACE.i:. 575 



5. ACTEPHILA, Blume. 



Trees or sbrubs. Leaves alternate, usually large, entire ; stipules 

 dt>cidaous. Flowers monoecious or casually dioecious, in axillary clusters ; 

 males numerous, shortly pedicellate ; females solitary or few with long 

 pedicels. Male flowbus : Perianth usually double. ISepals 5-G, sub- 

 equal or the inner larger, imbricate. Petals 5-6, small, scale-like or 0. 

 Disk broad, entire or 5-lobed. [Stamens 3-G, inserted on the disk ; 

 filaments free or nearly so ; anther-cells parallel. Pistillode 3-cleft. 

 Female flowers : Perianth as in the male. Ovary 3-celled, sessile on 

 the 5-lobed disk ; ovules 2 in each cell ; styles short, free or connate, 

 entire or 2-fid. Fruit a hard loculicidal capsule of three 2-valved cocci. 

 Seed usually solitary in each coccus, large, 3-gouous, without aril or 

 arillode ; testa thin, brittle ; albumen scanty or ; cotyledons fleshy, 

 plicate or corrugate. — Distrib. India, Malaya, Australia ; species 

 about 10. 



1. Actephila excelsa, Muell. Arg. in Limicea, v. 32 (1863) p. 78. 

 A shrub or small tree ; bark greyish-brown, lenticellate ; young parts 

 glabrous or nearly so. Leaves 3-7 by 1^-2 in., coriaceous, elliptic, 

 obovate or oblauceolate, subacute or acuminate, glabrous, base acute ; 

 main nerves 3-12 pairs, arched, slender; petioles g-| in. long; stipules 

 small, acuminate from a broad base, deciduous. Flowers usually monoe- 

 cious, the males and females usually in the same cluster, the male flowers 

 on short pedicels, the females on pedicels f-lg in. long. Calyx-segments 

 broadly ovate, obtuse. Petals obovate, cuneate, sometimes incised or 

 2-fid. Ovary globose, 3-lobed ; styles 3, bifid, divaricate. Capsules 

 |-1^ in. in diam., depressed-globose, 3-lobed, glabrous, minutely wrinkled 

 when dry, seated on the persistent calyx. Seeds | in. long, obtusely 

 trigonous, dorsally rounded, brown. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 282 ; Bedd. For. 

 Man. in Flor. Sylvat. p. clxxxix & Anal. Gen. t. 23, fig. 3 ; Talb. Trees, 

 Bomb. ed. 2, p. 299 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 369; 

 Prain, Beng. PI. p. 929. Actephila neilgherrensis, Wight, Icon. (1852) 

 t. 1910 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 4, p. 14. Anomosjyenmun e.vcelsum, Dalz. in 

 Kew Journ. Bot. v. 3 (1851) p. 228 & Bomb. Flor. p. 233.— Flowers : 

 Aug.-Sept. 



The earliest name of the plant under the genus Actephila is A. neil- 

 (jlierrensis, Wight. 



KoNKAN : Stocks !, DaL-ell ! ; Sayliadri liills, DaLrell ! ; Plionda Ghat, Dalzetl S. M. 

 Country: Castlerock, JVoodrow. — Distrib. India (Assam, Birina, Cliittagong, Cachar, 

 Andaiuans, W. Peninsula) ; Ceylon, Java. 



6. ANDRACHNE, Linn. 



Herbs, undershrubs, or slender shrubs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 

 membranous, usually small, entire. Flowers small, monoecious, pedi- 

 cellate ; male flowers clustered in the axils ; females solitary. Male 

 FLOWERS: Pei'ianth usually double. Calyx 5-6-lobed or -partite. Petals 

 5-6, small or 0. Glands of the disk as many or twice as many as the 

 petals. Stamens 5-6, alternate with the petals ; anthers erect, the cells 

 parallel. Pistillode small. Female flowers : Calyx-segments usually 

 larger than in the male. Petals minute or 0. Ovary 3-celled : ovules 



