Oldfieldia.'] cxxii. euphorbiace.e (iiutciunsox). 625 



12. OLDFIELDIA, Benth. et Hook. f. ; Benth. et Hook 

 f. Gen. PI. iii. 281. 



Flowers dioecious. Petals absent. Male flowers : Calyx shortly 

 5-7-fid. Stamens 4-10, inserted around a very thick fleshy villous 

 shortly lobed disk; filaments free; anthers erect; cells distinct, ovoid, 

 contiguous, dehiscing longitudinally. Rudimentary ovary filiform, 

 entire, truncate. Female flowers not known. Capsule depressed- 

 globose, 3-celled, dehiscing loculicidally into 3 two-valved cocci; peri- 

 carp thick, hard. Seeds 1-2 in each cell, obliquely obovoid, slightly 

 compressed ; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy; cotyledons flat, broad. 

 — A tree. Leaves opposite, petiolate, digitately 5-8-foliolate ; leaflets 

 more or less stalked, entire, penninerved. Male flowers in lax axillary 

 cymes. 



Monotypic, encleniic. 



1. O. africana, Benth. <(' Hook. f. in Hook, Kew Jonrn. ii. 185, t. C. 

 A tall, extensive tree, with the habit of a Vite.c ; branchlets slightly sul- 

 cate, rusty-puberulous when young, soon glabrescent. Leaves digitate ; 

 petiole up to 8 in. long, sulcate, puberulous ; leaflets 5-8, oblanceolate or 

 oblong-elliptic, more or less acuminate, very acute at the base, up to 

 7 in. long and 2 J in. broad, papery or subcoriaceous, glabrous; lateral 

 nerves 8-10 on each side, looped, in the larger leaflets prominent below, 

 in the smaller scarcely visible ; petiolules up to | in. long, grooved 

 above. Male flowers in lax pedunculate axillary cymes; cymes brown- 

 puberulous. Calyx-segments 5-7, rounded, rusty-pubescent. Stamens 

 5-10, inserted outside the disk; filaments free. Disk very thick, 

 densely pubescent. Rudimentary ovary filiform, truncate, glabrous, 

 hidden by the disk. Female flowers unknown. Capsule depressed- 

 globose, 1 in. in diam., o-celled, loculicidal ; pericarp hard, woody, about 

 I lin. thick ; seeds 2 in each cell, or 1 by abortion, obliquely obovoid, 

 about 5 lin. long, slightly compressed; testa crustaceous; albumen 

 copious; cotyledons flat, very broad. — Hiern in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 903. 



Upper Guinea. Sierrn Leone : in vast forests on tlie north side of tlie colony, 

 Welwilsch, 478! Uotanibe Island, near Sierra Leoiie, Kirk, 24! S:in)u Hiver, 

 Vogell and without precise locality, Oldfield ! Matin! Umvin Sf Umiiilie, 19! 



Known to commerce as " African oak." 



13. ARISTOGEITONIA, Prain in Kew Bulletin, 1908, 438. 



Flowers monoecious. Petals absent. Male flowers : Calyx G-j ar- 

 tite ; lobes 2-seriate, imbricated. Disk 0. Stamens 14-15; filaments 

 free; anthers ovate, cells 2, parallel, dehiscing longitudinally. Rudi- 

 mentary ovary large, 3-iobed. Female flowers : Calyx G-partite ; lobes 

 2-seriate, imbricated. Disk conspicuous, annular, crenately lobed. 

 Ovary 3-celled ; styles short, flat, spreading, obcordate, thickened, 

 very slightly connate at the base ; ovules in each cell paired. Capsule 

 breaking up into 3 two-valved cocci ; endocarp hard, crustaceous Seed 



VOL. VI. Sl'( T. I ^ 



