Hippomane EUPHOEBIA.CEiE • 329 



juices, the woodcutters are obliged to make a fire round the body of every 

 tree some time before they can venture to fell them " ; they burn the bark 

 off, and so get rid of the acrid sap. Also see Barham, Hortus Americanus, 99. 



27. GYMNANTHES Sw. 



Trees or shrubs, glabrous. Leaves alternate entire or crenate- 

 serrulate. Flowers moncecious, without sepals or petals, racemose. 

 Racemes or spikes axillaiy, sometimes also terminal, solitaiy or 

 clustered, often 2-sexuaL Bracts ovate, enclosing the flowers in 

 bud, sessile on a short peduncle, sometimes glandular outside at 

 the back or at the sides. Male flowers solitary, or 2-7 together, 

 in the axil of a bract ; female flowers solitary in the axil of a 

 bract, one or two at the base of the raceme, or several in a 

 distinct raceme. Disk wanting. Male flowers : each usually 

 subtended by one or two bracteoles (sepals of some authors), 

 soon falling. Stamens 2-4 ; filaments free or united. Rudiment 

 of ovary wanting. Female flowers : bracteoles (sepals of some 

 authors), 2-4. Ovary sessile or stalked, 3-celled; styles distinct, 

 or united half-way or only at the base, recurved, undivided ; 

 ovules solitary in each cell. Capsule splitting up from the 

 persistent axis into three 2-valved cocci. Seeds generally 

 carunculate. 



Species 12, natives 'of the West Indies, of which one is also 

 found in Brazil, and one in Florida, while three species are found 

 only in Mexico. 



Leaves oblanceolate, obovate, obovate-elliptical. Male 

 bracts 3-flowered. 

 Apex of leaves obtuse. Ovary stalked above the 



bracteoles, long pedunculate 1. G. lucida. 



Apex of leaves abruptly and shortly acuminate. 



Ovary sessile, shortly pedunculate 4. G.intcgra. 



Leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate. Male 

 bracts 5 (3-7)-flowered. 



Ovary sessile, not pedunculate 2. (I. glaiidulosa. 



Leaves roundish elliptical to lanceolate-elliptical. Male 

 bracts 1-flowered. 

 Ovary sessile, with peduncle not longer than ovary ... 3. G. elliptica. 



1. G. lucida Sio. Prodr. 96 (1788) ; leaves 3-9 cm. 1., oblan- 

 ceolate, or oblong-obovate, or even obovate-elliptical, apex obtuse, 

 leathery, shining on upper surface, nerves and veins prominently 

 net-veined on the upper surface ; bracts broadly ovate, without 

 glands, male 3-flowered ; filaments free ; ovary stalked above the 

 bracteoles, with a long peduncle increasing in fruit. — Sarg. Silv. 

 vii. 30, t. 309 ; Pax in Engl. PJianzenreich iv. 147. v. 82; Small 

 Fl. S.E. U.S. 703; Urh. Symb. Ant. iv. 352 (1905). Ateramnus 

 foliis oblongis, &c. Browne Hist. Jam. 339 (?). Excoecaria lucida 

 Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1122 (1800); Jussieu Enphorh. Tent. t. 16, 



