22 cxxiiic MORACEiE (Kendle). [Chlorophora. 



attached laterally, descending ; style inserted at the side of the 

 apex, filiform, stigmatic in the upper portion, simple or with a shorter 

 branch. Calyx becoming somewhat fleshy in the fruiting stage; 

 flowers closely crowded (but separable) to form a globose or oblong 

 syncarp. Achene much compressed, oblique at the apex ; pericarp 

 leathery. Seed with a thin membranous testa ; albumen absent ; 

 embryo bent double ; cotyledons ovate, equal ; radicle incumbent, 

 ascending. — Trees with a copious milky juice, sometimes spiny. 

 Leaves petioled, alternate, entire or toothed ; stipules lateral, 

 caducous. Flowers in solitary shortly stalked spikes ; male catkin- 

 like, dense, slender ; female globose or oblong-cylindrical, thick. — 

 Milicia, Sim, For. Fl. Port. E. Afr. 97, partly. 



Species 3, one widely distributed in tropical America ; and (?) 2 in tropical 

 Africa. 



1. C. excelsa, Benih. et Hook. f. I.e. A handsome lofty tree, 

 copiously lactescent, reaching 130 ft. or more in height, with a straight 

 cylindrical trunk 20-30 ft. in circumference, in older specimens 

 bare of branches for 40-60 ft. of its height and with a widely spreading 

 crown ; twigs purplish when young, becoming greyish later, more or 

 less puberulous, marked with the semicircular scars of the fallen 

 stipules. Leaves deciduous but falling late, thinly coriaceous, more 

 or less elliptic, on the young tree, according to Welwitsch, much 

 larger than in the adult, especially longer but with shorter petioles 

 (about J in.), apex with an abrupt acumen J in. long, base more or 

 less cordate, margin closely serrate-dentate, 6-7 in. long, 3-5 in. 

 wide, with scattered stiffish hairs above and more or less densely 

 tomentose beneath ; on older trees longer stalked (petioles 1-1 J in.), 

 shortly acuminate, base rounded or retuse, margin slightly undulating, 

 sometimes shortly denticulate above the middle, 4-5 in. long, 2-3 in. 

 broad, deep green and glabrous on the upper face, pale green beneath 

 and thinly puberulous on the nerves or with a minute denser pubes- 

 cence visible under a lens ; lateral nerves 13 to 17, generally 15, 

 on each side, alternate, somewhat ascending, connected by a close 

 network of veinlets ; stipules acuminate from a broad base, 8-10 

 lin. long, puberulous on back and miargia, very caducous. Flowers 

 dioecious, according to Welwitsch borne only on trees at least 

 15-20 years old, at the base of the young shoots ; spikes cylindrical, 

 dense-flowered, pendulous ; the male slender, 2J-7 in. long. 3-4 lin. 

 broad, peduncle 3-6 lin. long, pubescent ; the female stout, 1 J-2J in. 

 long, 7-9 lin. in diam. Male flowers : calyx whitish, with 4 deltoid- 

 ovate teeth, or somewhat deeply 4-lobed. Stamens white, long- 

 exserted. Rudimentary ovary squamiform. Female : calyx sur- 

 rounded at the base by a circlet of short hairs, segments almost free, 

 fleshy, narrow, concave, broadening and thickening upwards to an 

 obtuse hooded apex, covered with short stiff hairs ; surrounding 

 the ovary, the obliquely placed style of which projects far beyond 



