Sehastiania.] cxxii. euphorbiace.e (prain). 1000 



The African specimens, which are very uniform, have rather larger leaves, 

 capsules and seeds than the Asiatic and Australian plant, and on this account have 

 been treated as belonging to a distinct vjiriety both by Heille and. at a later date, by 

 Pax and Hoffmann. Except as regards size, however, the African plant does not in 

 any way differ from the Asiatic one and some of the Indian specimens are as large as 

 many of the African ones. 



82. SAPIUM, P. Br. : Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 334. 



Flowers monoecious, rarely dicBcious, apetalous. Disk 0. Male : Calyx 

 small, membranous, usually 3-lobed ; lobes valvate, subvalvate or open. 

 Stamens 2-3 ; filaments free ; anthers longitudinally dehiscent. Rudi- 

 mentary ovary 0. Female : Calyx 2-3-fid or partite, rarely subtubular, 

 shortly 3-toothed. Ovary 3- (rarely 2) celled and didymous ; ovules 

 in each cell solitary ; styles 3, rarely 2, free or slightly connate below, 

 entire. Capsule globose, pyriform or 2-3-coccous, woody or fleshy, 

 breaking up into 2-valved cocci or separating into indehiscent cocci or 

 quite indehiscent. Seeds globose or narrow-oblong, usually without a 

 caruncle (except in 2, *S'. Bussei), but often with a pulpy outer coat ; 

 albumen fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat. — Trees or shrubs, rarely under- 

 shrubs, everywhere glabrous. Leaves petioled, alternate, rarely appar- 

 ently opposite, penninerved, often with glandular margins; petiole 

 usually 2-glandular at the apex ; stipules usually small. Spikes ter- 

 minal, androgynous, with usually many male flowers above and a few 

 basal female; bracts small but wide, males usually several- (rarely 1-) 

 flowered, usually 2-glandular at the base. 



Species about 100, widely spread in the Tropics of both hemispheres. 



Male flowers solitary to each bract; leaf- base shortly 

 decurrent on the petiole; ovary 3-celled, not 

 horned; valves of the cocci thin, crustiiceous. 

 Leaves opposite; buds enveloped by the stipules, 



not perulate . . . . . .1. S. madarjascariense. 



Leaves alternate ; buds perulate. 



Capsule 2 in. wide ; seeds carunculate . . 2. S. Bussei. 

 Capsule under 1 in. wide ; seeds ecarunculate. 

 Leaves glandular at the base, their margin 

 herbaceous. 

 Leaves membranous . . . . ^. S. guineense. 



Leaves coriaceous . . . . .4.-8". Grahami. 



Leaves not glandular at the base, their 

 margin cartilaginous and minutely spinu- 

 lose ....... 5. S.faradianense. 



Male flowers several to each bract; leaf -base 

 minutely auriculate-cordate but not decurrent 

 on the petiole. 

 Ovary 3-celled ; valves of the cocci with a thick 

 woody endocarp. 

 Valves of the cocci with a projecting dorsal 

 wing or horn. 

 Epicarp coriaceous, thick, separating spon- 

 taneously from the woody endocarp . 6. "S". armafum. 

 VOL. VI. — SECT. I 2 K 



