1002 cxxii. EUPHORBiACE^ (pRAix). [Map'ounea. 



9. MAPROUNEA, Aubl.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 333. 



Flowers usually monoecious, occasionally dioecious, apetalous. Disk 

 0, Male: Calyx small, membranous, urceolate, shortly 2-3-lobed, lobes 

 imbricate. Stamens 1-3, usually 2, exserted ; 61aments united in a 

 slender column below, free above ; anthers oblong, their cells parallel, 

 opening longitudinally. Rudimentary ovary 0. Female : Calyx short, 

 3-lobed. Ovary 3- celled; ovules in each cell solitary; styles connate 

 in a short column below, free and entire above. Capsule subglobose or 

 slightly 3-gonous, breaking up into three 2-valved cocci. Seeds obovoid 

 with a large fleshy caruncle; testa crustaceous, foveolate or rugulose or 

 smooth ; albumen fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat. — Trees or shrubs, 

 everywhere glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire, petioled, usually 

 reticulate; stipules small. Flowers in usually 2-sexual (rarely 1-sexual) 

 spikes ; males densely ovoid or subglobose, terminal on special much 

 contracted branchlets ; bracts small, imbricate, glandular at the base on 

 each side, each. subtending 3, very rarely 5, sessile flowers; females 1-3 

 below the male spike, pedicelled, solitary to their bract or in one species 

 usually few in a distinct raceme without an accompanying male 

 spike. 



Speciesabont 5, tliree in Tio})ical Africa, two American. 

 Seeds rugulose, hardly as large as tlieii- caruncle, small, 

 i in. or less in diam. ; intlorescence usually l-^exual 

 and plants sometimes dioecious; male spikes sub- 

 globose, red, under ^ in. long ; a tree up to 50 ft. high 1. M. membra >i a cea. 

 Seeds smooth, larger than their caruncle, inHorescence 

 usually androgynous and plants always monoeiious. 

 Seeds small, i in. or less in diam., twice as large as 

 their caruncle ; male spikes subglobose, greenish- 

 yellow, under ^ in. long ; a shnib 5-7 ft. high . 2. ]\J. gracilis. 

 Seeds relatively larger, ^-\ in. in diam., three to 

 four times as large as their caruncle; male spikes 

 ovoid or elliptic, pnle-yellow, over J in. long; a 

 tree up to 30 ft. high 3. 3f. africana. 



1. M. membranacea, Pax d- K. Iloffm. in Engl. Pjfayizenr, 

 Enphorh.-IIippo)nan. IT'S. A tree up to 50 ft. high, all parts glabrous; 

 ultimate twigs passing into the inflorescence 1-1 J in. long. Leaves 

 short-petioled, tliinly membranous, with age becoming firmly papery, 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, bluntly acuminate, base cuneate or 

 somewhat rounded, margin entire, H-3 in. long, J-lJ in. wide, finely 

 nerved and reticulate; petiole slender, \ in. long; stipules small, 

 triangular. Inflorescence usually 1-sexual, dioecious or moncecious, 

 occasionally androgynous. INIale spikes globose or subglobose, I in. 

 long, dense-flowered, with usually only a few empty basal female bracts ; 

 male bracts 2-glandular at the base, wide- triangular, acute, each 

 3-5-flowered ; bracts and flowers red. Female racemes few-flowered, 

 occasionally, even when 1-sexual, accompanied by a much-reduced 

 abortive male spike; pedicels in fruit up to J in. long. Male calyx 

 thinly membranous, 2-3-lobed, very small. Stamens 2, exserted. 



