108 EUPHORBIACES. [ ACALYPHA. 
or on separate spikes. Mave flowers: Sepals 4, valvate, more or 
Jess connate in a membranous calyx. Stamens usually 8, or many 
on a convex receptacle ; filaments short, free ; anther-cells dis- 
tinct, divaricate, often becoming twisted or flexuous. Pistillode 
none. Frm. flowers: Sepals 3-4, minute, imbricate. Ovary 3- 
celled ; styles filiform, often long and laciniate or fimbriate ; ovules 
solitary in each cell. Fruit a capsule of 3 minute 2-valved crusta- 
ceous cocci. Seeds subglobose, testa crustaceous, albumen fleshy, 
cotyledons broad and flat.—Species about 225, in trop. and sub- 
trap. regions of the world. 
Bracts distant, shortly dentate ; capsule hispid 1. A. indica. 
Bracts crowded, fimbriate ; capsule glabrous. 2. A. ciliata. 
1. A. indica, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1003; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iit, 675 ; 
Royle Il. 327 ; F. B. I. v, 416 ; Watt E. D.; Prain Beng. Pl. 948 ; 
Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 610. 
An erect annual herb, 1-23 ft. high. Branches many, angular, finely 
pubescent. Leaves thin, glabrous, 1-3 in. long, ovate or rhomboid- 
ovate, obtuse or subacute, crenate-serrate ; base cuneate, 3-nerved ; 
petioles slender, usually longer than the blade ; stipules minute. 
Flowers in lax erect axillary elongate spikes; the males minute, 
clustered towards the summit of the spike, ebracteate ; the females 
in clusters of 3-5, subtended by a shortly stalked leaf-like truncate 
dentate many-nerved bract 4-3 in. in diam. Capsules hispid, con- 
cealed by the bracts, often only l-seeded. Seed z'5 im. long, ovoid, 
smooth, pale-brown. 
Very common within the area, especially as a garden weed, flowering 
during the greater part of the year. Drsrrip. : Throughout the 
hotter parts of India and in Ceylon, extending to Java and Trop. 
Africa. 
2. A. ciliata, Forsk. Fl. Zgypt.-Arab. 162; Roxb. Fl. Ind. 
iit, 676 ; F. B. I. v, 417 ; Watt E. D.; Collett Fl. Siml. 452 ; Prain 
Beng. Pl. 948 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 611. 
A stout herb, 1-22 ft. high. Stems erect; branches few, pubescent 
when young. Leaves thin, 13-3 in. long, ovate, acuminate or caudate- 
acuminate, finely serrate, pubescent on the veins beneath ;_ base 
usually rounded, 5-nerved ; petioles spreading, slender, usually ex- 
ceeding the leaf-blade. Flowers in axillary androgynous spikes 1-3 
in. long; the males few, very minute and sessile at the top of the 
spike; the females many and crowded at its base; bracts large, 
