CXV. BUPHOBBIACEJC. 599 



Female flowers : Sepals usually more ovate than in the male, rarely 

 accrescent in fruit. -Petals smaller than the sepals or obsolete. Disk 

 annular, or of 4-6 glands opposite the sepals. Ovary 3 (rarely 2-4)- 

 celled ; o\ule solitary in each cell ; style usually long and slender, 2-4- 

 cleft. Capsule subequally 6-valved, or of 3 separating 2-valved cocci. 

 Seeds smooth ; caruncle small ; testa crustaceous ; albumen copious ; 

 cotyledons broad. — Distrib. All hot countries ; number of species 

 uncertain, 500 described. 



Fruit: with scales as well as stellate hairs; leaves silvery beneath 



with white scales 1. C. reticulatus. 



Fruit with orbicular small scales, but without stellate hairs ; 



leaves glabrous when mature 2. C. oblong if oli us. 



Fruit with stellate hairs, but without scales ; leaves with a few 



scattered stellate hairs, but without scales 3. C. Gibsonianus. 



1. Croton reticulatus, Hey m, in Wall. Gat. (1828) 7724 B. A 

 shrub or small tree ; hranchlets, petioles, and I'hachis covered vi^ith 

 ferruginous easily detachable scales. Leaves '2k-Q by 1-2 in., elliptic- 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, entire, glabrous above, clothed beneath 

 \\ith sihery scales, base acute or rounded, furnished with a pair of 

 stipitate glands; petioles ^-1^ in. long; stipules subulate. Flowers 

 pedicellate, clothed with silvery scales, in terminal racemes shorter 

 than the leaves, the females few at the base of the raceme. Male 

 flowers: Buds globose. Pedicels y^g-^ in. long, slender. Sepals^ in. 

 long, ovate-oblong, obtuse, ciliolate. Petals slightly shorter than the 

 sepals, oljovate, obtuse. Stamens 14-20, inserted on a hairy receptacle. 

 Female flowers: Pedicels stout, -^ in. long. Calyx ^\ in. long; 

 sepals oblong-lanceolate, much enlarged in fruit. Ovary with reddish- 

 brown scales and stellate hairs. Style about \ in. long, 3-branched 

 shortly above the base, each branch again 2-branclied and again divided 

 iuto 2 long linear lobes at the apex. Capsules ovoid-oblong, under 

 I in. long, slightly 3-lobed, apiculate, with rerldish-brown stellate 

 hairs mixed with scales. Seeds purplish-brown mottled with white, 

 n. B. I. V. 5, p. 386; Bedd. Icon. PI. Ind. Or. t. 233; Trim. PI. 

 Ceyl. V. 4, p. 47 ; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 311 ; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 371; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 

 V. 2, p. 617. Croton Ju/jjoleucos, Dalz. in Kew Journ. Bot. v. 3 

 (1851) p. 123 ; Dalz. &' Gibs. p. 231.— Plowers : Oct.-Jan. Veen. 

 Pdnch'i, 



KoNKAN : hills, rather rare, Balzclll; Matheran, Cooke I, Macnaghtenl ; Ambeghd,*, 

 Woodrow ! Deccan : Phonda Ghat, EUckie, 1348 1 S. M. Country : Parle (Belgaum 

 districts), Talbot. — Distrib. India (W. Peninsula) ; Ceylon. 



2. Croton oblongifolius, Roxh. PI. Ind. v. 3 (1832) p. 685. A 

 middle-sized tree ; young shoots, branchlets, inflorescence, calyx, and 

 ovary clothed with minute orbicular silvery scales. Leaves 5-10 by 2|~ 

 4^ in., crowded towards the ends of the branchlets, oblong-lanceolate, 

 subacute, glabrous when fully grown, more or less crenate or serrate, 

 penninerved, base usually acute with no apparent glands above the 

 petioles; main nerves numerous, slender; petioles |-lg in. long. 

 Flowers pale yellowish-green, solitary or fascicled in the axils of minute 

 bracts on long erect often fascicled racemes, the males in the upper part 

 of the raceme, the females in the lower part. Male FLOwnfis . Pedicels 



