Macaranga.'] cxxii. euphorbiace^ (prain). 945 



31. M. Heudelotii, Baill. Adansonia, i. 69. A small to medium 

 tree, reaching 40 ft. in height ; branches armed with spines, pubescent. 

 Leaves petioled, oblanceolate-oblong, obtuse or minutely mucronate, 

 base rather narrow, rounded, margin entire, 3-5 in. long, ^2 in. wide, 

 coriaceous, glabrous or slightly pubescent on the nerves beneath ; 

 petiole rusty-pubescent, J-| in. long ; stipules caducous. Male flowers 

 in axillary spikes ; bracts ovate-triangiilar, acute ; buds minute, obconic. 

 Stamens 3-5, exserted. Female flowers in axillary panicles. Calyx 

 membranous, 4-5-toothed. Ovary globose, densely lepidote ; style 

 thick, pilose; apex conic, retrorsely incurved. Capsule pisiform, 

 lepidote. Seed globose. — Miill. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 1()15. 

 M. apicifera, Beille in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, Iv. Mem. viii. 70, 



Upper Guinea. Seneo^ambia : Cape Vei*d peninsula, Leprieur ! Konilxi, 

 Heudelof, 106! Kio Nunez, lleiidelol, 784! Dajraiiii, Ferroflet, 725! 753! 

 Leprieur! French Guinea : Kindia, CAetvr/t>r, 13028 ! 13157! 13208 bis ! Koiiria, 

 ChevaJ ier, 14854 ! Medinani, on the Upper Nijj^er, Chevdlier^ 513 ! Sierra Leone, 

 Scott-ELliot, 4390! 4517! 4743! 4958! 5258! 5275! Ivory Const: Lower 

 Cavally, between Prolo and Blirron, Chevalier, 19885! Southern Nigeria: Laj^os; 

 Kppah, Barter, 3271 ! near Lagos, Molonei) I 



G9. BICINUS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 321. 



Flowers mona?cious, apetalous. Male : Calyx membranous, globose 

 in bud, splitting into 3-") valvate lobes. Stamens very numerous, uf> 

 to a thousand, clustered, central ; filaments several times divided ; 

 anthers 2-celled ; cells distinct, subglobose, divaricate, separately- 

 attached to the connective; dehiscence longitudinal. Rudimentary 

 ovary 0. Female : Calyx very caducous, usually spathaceously split. 

 Ovary 3-celled ; styles short or somewhat elongated, 2-fid or occasionally 

 entire, spreading, somewhat plumose ; ovules solitary in each cell. 

 J^isk 0. Capsule 3-dymous, breaking up into 3 2-valved cocci. Seeds 

 ovoid; testa crustaceous ; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat. — A 

 tall annual herb or a tree-like shrub, glabrous, often glaucous. Leaves 

 alternate, large, peltate, palmately 7- or more-lobed ; lobes serrate. 

 Racemes more or less paniculate towards the ends of the branches : 

 flowers rather large, the upper males, clustered ; the lower females, 

 shortly pedicelled. Capsule smooth or echinate. 



A single species, perhaps originally African, now widely cultivated throughout 

 the Tropics. 



1. R. comxuuniSy Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 1007. Herbaceous or 

 shrubby, evergreen ; twigs glaucous. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, 

 orbicular-peltate, 6 in. to 2 ft. across, deeply palmately lobed ; lobes 7 

 or more, from ovate or oblong to ovate-lanceolate or linear, acute or 

 acuminate, margin sharply glandular-toothed, glabrous and glaucous 

 on both surfaces, green or reddish: petiole 4-12 in. long; stipules 

 large, ovate, connate in an acute bud-sheathing deciduous calyptra 

 i-J in. long, quickly deciduous. Flowers in large pyramidal pseudo- 

 terminal erect panicles, males below, females higher up. Male : Calyx 



VOL. VI. SECT. I 2 H 



