Androstachys.] cxxii. EUPHORBiACEiE (hutchinson). 741 



Flowers axillary on silky-hairy peduncles, males 3-nate, females solitaiy 

 in each leaf-axil ; male peduncles usually more or less connate, the 

 lateral rather shorter than the central. 



A single endemic species. 



This genus has unfortunately been omitted from the key, but it may be at once 

 distinguished from all the other African genera of Phi/llantheoB by the opposite 

 leaves (they are opposite, but compound, in Oldfieldia),hy the remarkable intra- 

 petiolar stipules, and by the numerous stamens arranged on an elongated receptacle. 



1. A. Johnsonii, Frain in Kew Bulletin, 11)08, 430. A tall 

 hard-wooded tree, providing valuable timber ; branchlets angular and 

 articulated. Leaves opposite, decussate, ovate, obtuse, rounded or 

 subcordate at the base, lJ-2 in. long, 1-1 J in. broad, entire, rigidly 

 coriaceous, glabrous above, more or less silky-hairy below ; stipular 

 sheath | in. long^ silky-pubescent outside ; petioles J-J in. long, silky- 

 hairy. Flowers yellow ; peduncles J-J in. long. Males: Sepals peta- 

 loid, lanceolate, with retuse or :::?-lobed tips, long-pilose outside. 

 Staminal axis J-1 in. long. Females: Calyx-segments J in. long. 

 Ovary densely pilose ; style J in. long, silky. Capsule depressed, J in. 

 long. Seeds J in. long, J in. broad ; testa brown and shining. — Prain 

 in Kew Bulletin, 1901), 201. 



Mozamb. Dlstr. Portuguese East Africa: l\\\\Q.\\\h-Aiie, O'Neill ! near Beira,. 

 Johnson, 283 ! 



35. MICRODESMIS, Planch. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 287. 



Flowers dioecious. Petals present, conspicuous. Male flowers: 

 Sepals 5 (rarely 4 or G), imbricate. Petals the same in number as the 

 sepals, but larger, imbricate-contorted. Stamens 5 or 10, 1-2-seriate, 

 when 2-seriate the outer series opposite the sepals, inserted on a fleshy 

 receptacle oj- disk adnate to the rudimentary ovary ; anthers erect, cells 

 parallel or subparallel, distinct, dehiscing longitudinally. Rudimentary 

 ovary columnar, ovoid or tritid. Female flowers : Perianth as in the 

 male. Disk absent. Ovary fleshy, 2-3-celled ; styles short, bipartite, 

 papillose-laciniate ; ovules solitary in each cell. Drupe indehiscent, 

 rugose outside. Seeds with a membranous or slightly crustaceous testa ; 

 albumen fleshy ; cotyledons ovate, flat. — Shrubs with alternate, shortly 

 petiolate, entire or dentate penniveined leaves, pellucid-dotted in the 

 African species. Flowers small, shortly pedicellate, fasciculate in the 

 leaf -axils ; males often numerous, females few or nearly solitary. 



Species 3, the two following, and one extending from Ceylon to Southern China 

 and the Malay Archipelago. 



Stamens inserted at the base of the rudimentary ovary ; disk 



absent .......... 1. M. piiberula. 



Stamens inserted on a fleshy disk surrounding and adnate to 



the rudiiiientary ovary 2. M. Zenkeri. 



1. M. puberula. Hook. f. ex Planch, in Hook, Ic. PI. t. 7bS. A 

 bush or shrub about 10 ft. high ; branchlets slender, woody, pubescent. 



