266 FLORA OF JAMAICA Phyllanthus 



22. P. linearis Sw. Fl. hid. Occ. 1113 (1800); flowering 

 branches linear, similar to the penultimate branches and scarcely 

 wider. — Griseb. loc. cit. ; Muell. Arg. torn. cit. 430. Xylophylla 

 angustifolia, var. linearis Sw. Prodr. 28 (1788). 



Wright \ Swartz ; Bertero ; Macfadyenl sea coast, Westmoreland, 

 Purdie ! Cinnamon Hill, Shoix ! Lucea, Hitchcock ; Mulgrave, St. Eliza- 

 beth, 1300 ft. ; Eton, Hanover, 100 ft. ; Harris 1 F1-. Jam. 12,382, 12,871. 



Shrub 1-10 ft. high. Stipules triangular-ovate, about 1*5 mm. 1. 

 Penultimate branches 6-8 cm. 1., 1*5-2 mm. br. Floioering branches in 

 two vertical rows, 3-10 cm. 1., 1-3 mm.br.; notches 2-5 on each side, 

 distant, minute ; veins dense, straight. Male floicers : Sepals 6, roundish, 

 white, about 1 mm. 1. Disk of G flat, roundish glands. Filaments united 

 below into a very short column, free above. Anther-cells united, opening 

 horizontally. Female floioers : Sepals 6, outer oblong with brownish tips, 

 scarcely 1 mm. 1., inner elliptical or ovate, 1*2 mm. 1. Disk saucer-shaped, 

 splitting irregularly into broad segments, about one-third the length of 

 the ovary. Styles flattened, recurved, triangular-obovate, truncate, with 

 minute lobes at apex. 



The plant commonly grown in gardens under the name Phyllanthus 

 nivosus W. G. Smith, and to some extent naturalized, is Breynia nivosa 

 Small (Bull. Torr. Bot. 01. xxxvii. 516 (1910) ), a native of New Hebrides. 

 It is a bushy shrub of loose habit, with dark, wiry branches, and white 

 and green mottled, ovate-elliptical leaves. Flowers monoecious, the male 

 with a short top-shaped calyx, the female with a campanulate calyx which 

 becomes enlarged and spreading in the fruit. 



2. SECURINEGA Juss. 



Shrubs. Twigs in S. Acidoton and some other species spiny 

 at apex. Leaves alternate, entire (small, clustered in S. Acidoton), 

 somewhat leathery. Flowers clustered in the axils, monoecious 

 or dioecious, without petals ; male small, numerous, subsessile, 

 female fewer or solitary. Male flowers : Sepals 5, imbricate. 

 Lobes of the disk or glands 5, alternate with the stamens. 

 Stamens 5, opposite the sepals. Ovary rudimentary with three 

 style-like branches. Female flowers : Calyx like that of the 

 male. Disk subentire. Ovary 3-celled ; styles distinct, recurved, 

 2-branched ; ovules two in each cell. Capsule splitting up into 

 2-valved cocci. Seeds without a caruncle. 



Species about 15, in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the 

 world. 



S. Acidoton Fawc. & Bendle in Journ. Bot. hit. 68 (1919). — 

 S. acidothamnus Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ft. 2, 451 (1866) : 

 Urh. Symh. Ant. vii. 514, obs. 2. Acidoton frutescens &c. Browne 

 Hist. Jam. 355. Adelia Acidoton L. Syst. ed. 10, 1298 & Amoen. 

 V. 383, 411 (1760). Fluggea acidothamnus Griseb. in Goett. Nachr. 

 (1865) 164. (Fig. 86.) Type in Herb. Linn. 



Green Ebony. 



Savannas about New Greenwich, Browne ! Wright ! Swartz I Health- 



