368 NYCTAGINACEAE. [ Pisonia. 
or muricate i nha Embryo straight; radicle inferior; cotyledons clasping 
the albumen. — Soft-wooded trees or shrubs with opposite or scattering 
leaves. Peace inconspicuous, glomerate or eewege fascicled, the clusters 
cece in terminal or axillary cymose corym r panicles 
A genus vd soe gta 30 species, spread over the tropical regions of the wukil world, but 
chiefly Ameri 
Limb of perigone lobed; stigma fimbriate poet nbea gina se 
Leaves et fe cuneate; Picea pedicellate ; stamens 8—12, scarcely 
xserted ; stigmat ¢ fimbriae radiating from a apex ; Guiting 
perigone smoo : 1. P. umbellifera. 
Leaves broad at the base : flowers sessile ‘stamens 1720, long 
exserted; stigmatic fimbrine a ng t t t ity th 
tyle; fruiting perigo 5 : P. Sandwicensis. 
Limb of perigone entire; eke Gaeead or peltate; stamens 8 (—12) : - inermis. 
In the a. species the characters, taken from the ecg Pages and s 
those or retiable 
ve 
seem to be pretty constant and, on the whole, to run parailel 
ones eit as ern the leaves and inflorescence. In referring nos. 1 ‘and a ve follow’ 
was in a position to examin arge material 
See ti e the large in t barium: 
the British deviled wis Kew. To that nathde also belongs the S eeaiy for the 
ee adduced. 
e fruiting tale rg of all three species exudes scid glue which the native 
oie make use of for catching birds. It will atick fy to paper in the herba rium 
for years, and this ooats may account for the wide distribution of some spect es b 
the agency of bird’. The native name «Papala» occurs again in the Maori -Patepers? 
of New Zeala a. 
1. P. umbellifera, Seem. in Bonplandia, X, 154. — FI. Vit. p. 195. 
A low tree, 15—20 ft. high, with spreading branches, glabrous. Leaves 
panes obovate, contracted at the base, obtuse or shortly acuminate, but 
metimes broad at the base and suborbicular, 5—11‘ X 3—5’, on petioles 
of 1/2‘, fleshy, the upper ones crowded in a kind of whorl, the lower sub- 
opposite. Inflorescence terminal, subumbellate: one or several peduncles 
rising from the apex of a branch, each 2—6‘ long, dividing at or near 
the apex into a loose umbel or contracted panicle of 4—8 rays, 1—2' long, 
which again bear loose umbellets of 3—6 flowers; the ultimate pedicels 
I'/2—3". Perigone greenish, smooth, with the limb 5-fid; that of the 
male fl. campanulate, 2—3”, of the female tubular, 3—4“ long. Stamens 8, 
rarely 9—12, as long as the perigone in the male, half as long in the 
female flowers. Style in the fertile fl. ds long as the perigone, with the 
stigma radiating at the apex into a parachute of long fringes, shorter and 
apex 
1/2—2/3 the length of the perigone. Embryo 10—12‘ long, the hea 
21/2’, the cotyledons foliaceous, 4“ broad, cordate-ovate, in induplicate 
_Yound a scant mucilaginous albumen, the outer one broader and longer 
than the inner. — Nadéaud, Enum, Pl. Tah, p. 46. — Ceodes umbellifera, 
