Acalypha EUPH01UJIACE.T-: 297 



bracts, arranged in spikes, catkin-like or slender and elongated ; 

 female solitary or 2-4 together in the axil of a leafy bract ; 

 female bracts increasing in fruit, solitary or few at the base of 

 the male spikes, sometimes in a distinct spike ; male and andro- 

 gynous spikes mostly axillary ; female axillaiy, lateral, or 

 terminal, solitary or clustered. Disk wanting. Male flowers : 

 Calyx closed in the bud, valvately 4 -parted in flowering. Stamens 

 8(-16); filaments free; anther-cells free, hanging from the apex 

 of the filament, usually flexuose, worm-like, opening at the apex. 

 No rudiment of ovary. Female flowers : Sepals 3-4, imbricate, 

 very small. Ovary 3-celled ; styles 3, free, thread-like, generally 

 much branched ; ovules solitary. Capsule splitting up into three 

 2-valved cocci. Seeds without a caruncle. 



Species, about 370, widely dispersed through the tropics, a 

 very few beyond the tropics in America. 



Inflorescence 2-sexual (see also A. virgata). 



Leaves roundish to oblong-lanceolate, 1-3 cm. I. 

 Perennial herb, stems to 1 ft., woody often 



below 1. A. chamtedrifolia. 



Leaves ovate acuminate, 4-8 cm. 1. Shrub, 2-4 ft. 2. A. cnspidata. 

 Inflorescence 1-sexual. 



Female bracts few. Shrub 1-6 ft., dioecious 3. A. scabrosa. 



Female bracts many. Plants monoecious. 

 Female spike terminal. Annual herbs. 



Female spike plume-like; bract with long 



bristle-like apex 4. A. alojM^curoidea. 



Female spike not plume-like; bract to 2 mm. 1. 5. A. corthorifoUa. 

 Female spike axillary. Shrubs or small trees. 

 Fruiting bracts 5-9 mm. 1. 

 Leaves crenate-serrulate. 

 Young twigs, petioles, and inflorescence 

 pubevulous. Fruiting bracts to 8 

 mm. 1., notched to J or ^ of its length 



into triangular-deltoid teeth G. A. virgatd-. 



Glabrous. Fiuiting bract cleft below 

 middle. 

 Fruiting bract with lanceolate-linear 



lobes 7. A. Ixvigata. 



Fruiting bract with oblong obtuse lobes 8. A. pniinosa. 

 Leaves strongly serrate. Young twigs, 

 petioles, and inflorescence densely 



pubescent 9. A. jamaiccnsis. 



Fruiting bract less than 5 mm. 1 10. A. elliptica. 



1. A. ehamsedrifolia Muell. Arg. in I)C. Prodr. xv. pi. 2, 

 879 (1866) (excl. vars.) ; herb, perennial, often woody below; 

 leaves roandish to oblong-lanceolate, 1-3 cm. 1. ; inflorescence 

 2-sexual ; Urb. Symh. Ant. iv. 347 ; Chcqyman, FI. S. U.S. ed. 3, 428 ; 

 Prain d Hutchinson in Keic Bull. 1918, 20. A. indica var. 



