860 cxxii. EUPHORBiACEJE (prain). [Erythrococca. 



base rounded, margin crenate, ^3-4 in. long, 1 in. wide, pale green, 

 glabrous ; petiole \-\ in. long, pubescent ; stipules accrescent, very 

 strongly spinescent. Flowers minute, in short-peduncled narrow 

 spike-like racemes; peduncles J in. long and rhachis up to 4 in. long, 

 sparingly pubescent ; pedicels glabrous, j\^ in. long, solitary. Male 

 calyx green, pubescent at the apex, globose in bud ; lobes 4, mem- 

 branous, divided beyond the middle ; tube wide campanulate. Stamens 

 U ; outer 5, the rest central ; filaments longer than the anthers ; glands 

 relatively large, as long as the filaments, hirsute, ovoid-oblong, 10 outer 

 in an extra-staminal ring, the rest inter-staminal. Female calyx 

 smaller than the male, ;^-lobed ; lobes ciliate. Ovary glabrous, 3-celled ; 

 stigmas free, linear, patulous, fimbriate-laciniate throughout. Disk 

 replaced by 3 staminodes with stout subcylindric-clavate filaments, 

 each with 2 erect non-poUiniferous anther-cells surrounded by an extra- 

 staminodial ring of 5 free or slightly connate glands, hirsute at the tip. 

 Capsule 8-coccous or (by abortion) 2-coccous, didymous or occasionally 

 1-coccous; cocci J in. across. Seed with a red aril and a finely 

 foveolate-reticulate testa. — Prain in Ann. Bot. xxv. 615. Poggeophyton 

 aculeatum, Pax in Engl. Jahrb, xix. 80 ; Durand & Schinz, Etudes Fl. 

 Congo, 245; Engl, in Sitz. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. xxxviii. (1908)829; 

 Th. i Hel. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congo). 490, G56. 



Soutb Central. Belgian Congo: Lualaba-Kasai district; on the Luhia 

 Itiver, Poffffe, 1370 ! 



An interesting plant owing to the presence of a double disk in tlie female flower. 

 The male flowers are borne on the lower part of the female rhachisos, but are solitary 

 like the female ones. The hypogynous scales of other specit-s are replnced by 

 staminodes; these staminodes are sut rounded by an extra-stamijiodial ring of disk- 

 gliinds corresponding to the extm-staminal ring of glands in the male flower. The 

 fact that the female inflorescence is abnormal in having male flowers suggests that 

 the f"emnle flower may also be abnormal in having staminodes instend of hypogynous 

 scales, and in having an extiu-staminodial ring of receptacular glands of the 

 male type. Except that the leaves are crenate, not denticulate, and that the 

 stamens arc 9 in place of 12, this species (apart from the disk) hardly differs 

 from E. subspicata. 



15. E. Menyharthii, Prain in Ann. Bot. xxv. 616. Shrub 

 o-lO ft. high ; twigs softly silky ; bud-scales persistent. Leaves short- 

 petioled, membranous, ovate or lanceolate, acute or narrow-obtuse, base 

 cuneate or rounded, margin sparingly toothed, i-2 in. long, J-1 in. 

 wide, pale green, softly pubescent; petiole pubescent, j^^-^ in. long; 

 stipules accrescent, umbonate or spinulose. Flowers minute, in short- 

 peduncled racemes; peduncles and rhachis silky ; males many-flowered, 

 females 2-4-flowered ; pedicels silky, males J in. long, jointed high up, 

 clustered ; females shorter, solitary. Male calyx pale green, silky, 

 conical in bud ; lobes 4-5, lanceolate. Stamens 2-5, all central ; 

 filaments longer than the anthers ; glands minute, glabrous, 4-5, free, 

 all in an extra-staminal ring. Female calyx silky, 2-4-partite. Ovary 

 densely strigose, 3-celled, less often 2-celled ; stigmas free, linear, 

 patulous, fimbriate-laciniate throughout. Disk of 3 or 2 subcylindric 

 clavate scales, longer than the calyx-lobes, with sometimes a few smaller 



