Picrodendron EUPHORBIACEJi 275 



reticulate with fine meshes. Male floioers : Bracts 1-2-1 -5 mm. 1.; 

 anthers about 1 mm. 1. ; filaments shorter. Female flowers : Sepals 4 or 5, 

 valvate, more or less unequal, slightly toothed, 3-5(-8) mm. 1., linear- 

 lanceolate. Style columnar. Drupe orange-yellow, about 2 cm. in diam., 

 indehiscent. Seed : rhaphe within the furrow of the seed passing out 

 anteriorly into a linear black chalaza, and terminating between the lower 

 lobes of the seed ; edible, but should be eaten with caution. 



._ • 7. CROTON L.* 



Trees or shrubs usually more or less covered with bro\vnish 

 or whitish stellate hairs or with scales. Leaves usually alternate, 

 sometimes with 2(-several) glands at the apex of the petiole 

 above, or at base of midrib beneath, or at base of limb beneath, 

 entire, or serrate, sometimes ciliatc with glands. Flowei's 

 monoecious or rarely dioecious (in G. linearis and C. discolor), with 

 petals in male flowers, and in female flow-ers of C. glahellus 

 (rudimentary or wanting iu other Jamaican species), spicate or 

 subracemose at the apex of branches, or sometimes axillary as 

 well as terminal, the male along the upper part of the rhachis, 

 the female on the lower part, solitary under each bract, or some- 

 times one with two or three male under each bract below. Male 

 flowers : Receptacle generally hairy. Calyx of 5 (4, 6) segments, 

 equal in Jamaican species, valvate or narrowly imbricate. 

 Petals 5 (4). Disk represented by glands. Stamens generally 

 10-20 ; filaments bent ^nd anthers pendulous in the bud, both 

 erect in the flower. Rudiment of ovary wanting. Female 

 flowers : Calyx-segments generally equal, but unequal in 

 C. glandulosus and C. hirtus, sometimes increasing in size after 

 flowering. Disk rin'g-like or of distinct scales at the base of the 

 calyx. Ovary 3-celled ; styles once or twice divided ; ovules 

 solitary in the cells. Capsule splitting up into 2-valved cocci. 

 Seeds smooth with a small caruncle. 



Species nearly 700, very widely dispersed in the tropics, and 

 a few in America outside the tropics. 



Leaves entire or subentire. 



Margin not ciliate with glands. 



Glands at base of leaf or &^qx of petiole. 



Dioecious ; leaves 2-5 cm. 1. ; glands at apex 

 of petiole above. 

 Leaves linear-oblong ; nerves not obvious 



beneath 1. C. linearis. 



■ Leaves oblong to roundish-elliptical; 



nerves prominent beneath 2. C. discolor. 



* The ornamental garden "Crotons" do not belong to this genus, but 

 to Codifvum, especially to Codineum variegatum. The species are natives 

 of the islands in the southern Pacific and the Malay Archipelago. 



T 2 



