288 FLORA OF JAMAICA Argylliamnia 



near IMoneague, Lord Walsingliam\ Long Mt., 900 ft.; Chelsea Hill and 

 Round Hill, St. Cruz Mts., 200)0-2200 ft. ; hill behind Ferry quarry, 200 ft. ; 

 Inverness, Clarendon, 200 ft. ; Harris ! M. Jam. 6149, 6330, 9055, 9690, 9702, 

 10,048, 11,686.— Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. 

 Cruz, St. Jan, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew, St. Lucia. 



A straggling shrub, prostrate to 5 ft. high, with whitish bark, and all 

 parts of the plant grey-whitish or purplish. Leaves 2-8 cm. 1., lanceolate 

 or lanceolate-elliptical, apex acute, base subacute, serrulate, adpressed- 

 pubescent, glabrescent, or glabrate ; nerves one on each side from the base, 

 otherwise. piainate, prominent beneath. Racemes 1 cm. 1. or less. Flowers 

 greenish-white or whitish. Male flotvers : Calyx about" 2- 5 mm. 1. ; seg- 

 ments 4, narrowly elliptical. Petals 4, as locg as calyx, broadly elliptical, 

 tapering to a very acute base, sometimes sub-3-lobed above. Staynens 4, 

 longer than the calyx. Female fioiveri : Calyx-segments 5, '3 mm. 1., 

 increasing to 4*5 or 6 mm. in fruit, oblong-elliptical, oblong-oblanceolate 

 to sublinear in fruit, puberulous all over. Petals minute, about "5 mm. 1., 

 lanceolate. Ovary villose ; styles villose, 2-forked once, each branch 2-lobed 

 at apex.- Capsule 3-4 mm. 1., 5-6 mm. br. Seeds 2-2*5 mm. 1., net-veined, 

 obovoid. 



9. CAPERONIA St. Hil. 



Erect annual herbs, gi-owing in swampy places, stems succu- 

 lent. Leaves alternate ; stipules persistent. Flowers monoecious 

 (in W. Indian species), with petals, in 2-sexual axillary spikes or 

 spike-like racemes, each subtended by a bract, the upper flowers 

 male, the lower female. Disk wanting. Male flowers : Calyx- 

 segments 5 or 6, valvate. Petals 5, imbricate, attached at the 

 base of the staminal column and raised above the calyx. Stamens 

 usually 10 in two whorls round the column ; anthers ovoid, the 

 cells separated by a short connection, and aftixed at the middle, 

 or subpendulous. Rudiment of the ovary at the apex of the 

 column. Female flowers : Sepals 5 or 6, imbricate, generally 

 unequal, the outer smaller than the inner. Petals 5. Ovary 

 3-celled ; styles short, cut into many segments ; ovules solitary 

 in the cells. Capsule breaking up into three 2 valved cocci, 

 spiny. Seeds subglobular, without a caruncle, very minutely 

 dotted in a network pattern. 



Species 33, natives of the tropics in America and Africa.. 



C. eastaneifolia St. Hil. Bern. Bras. 245 (1824); A. Bich. in 

 Sagra Cub. xi. 213 ; Miiell. Arg in DC. Frodr. xv. pt. 2, 754 & in 

 Fl. Bras. xi. j)t. 2, 324 : Fax in Engl. Fjianzenreich iv. 147. vi. 31. 

 C. nervosa A. Bich. loc. cit. 213 (1850). C. palustris Griseh. Fl. 

 Brit. W. Ind. 43 (1859) (non ^S'^. Eil.). Croton castaneifolium 

 L. Sp. Fl. 1004 (1753); B. B. & K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. ii. 70; 

 Geisel. Crot. Monog. 60. (Fig. 93.) Specimen in Herb. Linn, in 

 cover Croton. 



Distinl Cornwall, St. Elizabeth, Harris ! Fl. Jam. 12;096. — Cuba, Is. of 

 Pines, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, B. Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay. 



He^-b about 1 ft. high ; stem, youngest portion with adpressed hairs, 



