950 cxxii. EUPHORBiACE^ (prain). [PluJcmetia . 



membranous, ovate or ovate-oblong, rather abruptly acuminate, base 

 rounded or wide cuneate, margin crenate-dentate, often very minutely 

 so, 4 in. long, l|-2 in. wide, 3-nervedfrom the base ; secondary nerves 

 8-4 on each side, glabrous; petiole lJ-2 in. long, glabrous ; stipules 

 minute. Racemes axillary, subpaniculate; peduncles J in. long and 

 rhachis puberulous ; male flowers in bracteolate clusters of 3-5 at the 

 apices of secondary puberulous branches ^V'i ^^- ^^^S 5 pedicels slender, 

 glabrous, J in. long, jointed at the base ; female flowers at the apices of 

 a single or of two subopposite puberulous subbasal secondary branches ; 

 female pedicels glabrous, very short, jointed at the bracteoles. Male : 

 Calyx subglobose, glabrous, valvately 4-lobed. Stamens about 40 ; 

 anthers subglobose ; filaments with minute inter-staminal glands. 

 Female : Calyx puberulous, 4-lobed. Disk 0. Ovary at first pilose, soon 

 glabrescent, 4 -celled, stoutly 4-winged ; style stout, cylindric, slightly 

 widened upwards with 4 shortly ovate, cruciformly spreading, finely 

 fimbriate stigmas. Capsule thickly coriaceous, 3 in. across, with 

 4 thickly coriaceous radially spreading wide-ovate wings ^ in. long ^ in. 

 deep projecting from each valve and 4 raised commissural ridges midway 

 between the wings, opening at the apex to expose the seed. Seed sub- 

 globose, 1 in. long, almost as wide; testa thin, brown, subcrustaceous ; 

 albumen firmly fleshy, pale yellow. — DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 769. Tetra- 

 carpidium Staudtii, Pax in Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 329. 



Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone: without precise locality, -Seo^^-^/Zio/, 4118 f 

 Southern Nijreria: Oban, Talbot, 1371! 1384! Modukeke, Foster, 205! Akwa, 

 Thomas, 171! Camcroons: vnrious localities, Mann, 2202! Winkler, 1431! 

 Volkens,9l Manns/eld, 42\ Standi, 558! 783! 802! Ledermanv, 296! 1145! 

 1183! 1184! 1207! 1250 16138! Buchholz, I0i\ Zenker, 1683! 2234! 25511 

 3273! 3311 ! 3394 ! Fernando Po : Clarence Peak, Buchholz ! 



&ower Guinea. Spanish Guinea : Sierra de Crystal, ilfann, 1739 ! Gaboon: 

 without precise locality, Klaine, 2284 ! 



Soutb Central. Belgian Congo : Eastern Province; Fort Beni, Mildhraed, 

 2292! 



Perhaps polygamo-dioecious ; sometimes the female flowers mny be absent 

 from an individual raceme or even from an entire specimen ; whether individual 

 plants may be wholly male has not been noted. Usually as soon as the female 

 flowers hiive been fertilised tlie portion of tlie inflorescence which has male flowers 

 falls away. Klaine's specimens from the Gaboon have the pedicels puberulous like 

 the rhachis. Scott-Elliot states that the f i uit (? seed, which yields a commercial oil) 

 is edible. Perhaps Dr. Pax is justified in thinking that this should be considered 

 the type of a distinct genus. 



2. P. hastata. Mall. Arg. in Flora, 18fi4, 469. Herb; stems 

 several from a woody base, slender, twining, puberulous. Leaves short- 

 petioled, firmly membranous, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acute, base 

 shallowly or deeply hastate or sagittate, margin finely dentate, 1^«^ in. 

 long, ^-§ in. wide, sparingly hirsute on the nerves and elsewhere scabri- 

 dulous on both surfaces; petiole slender, ^J in. long, pubescent or 

 scabridulous ; stipules lanceolate, small. Racemes simple, spike-like, 

 lateral or leaf-opposed, \-'2 in. long ; male flowers many, female solitary, 

 subbasal ; bracts linear-lanceolate, males several-flowered ; pedicels 



