334 FLORA OF JAMAICA Hura 



axils or under the male spike. Disk none. Male flowers : 

 Calyx wanting or forming a more or less complete rim or cup, 

 margin irregular or toothed. Stamens 8-20 ; filaments united 

 with the connectives into a column ; anther-cells distinct, 

 attached in 2-4 or 8—10 whorls on the outside of the column 

 below the top. Rudiment of ovary none. Female flowers : 

 Calyx broadly cup-shaped, truncate, entire. Ovary 5-20-celled ; 

 styles united into a long fleshy column, funnel-like above and 

 spreading star-like at the top ; ovules solitary in each cell. 

 Capsule large, depressed in the centre, splitting up with a loud 

 report and scattering the numerous 2-valved cocci. Seeds 

 laterally compressed, lens-shaped, without caruncle ; endosperm 

 fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat. 



Species 2, natives of tropical America. 



H. crepitans L. Sp. PI 1008 (1753); Lam. Ulustr. t. 793 

 Descourt. Fl. Ant. ii. t. 124; Tussac Fl. Ant. iv. 21, t. 5; Griseh 

 Fl. Br. W. Ind. 50; Baill. Etud. Euphorh. 542, /. 6, /. 21-35 

 Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. av. pt. 2, 1229 & in Fl Bra's, xi. pt. 2 

 632, t. 86 ; Urh. Symh. Ant. iv. 352 ; Pax in Engl. PJianzenreich iv 

 147. t;. .274, /. 55; Prain Fl. Trop. Afr. vi. sect. 1, 1019 

 Hippomane arboreum ramulis &c. Broicne Hist. Jam. 351 

 (Fig. 112.) A specimen from Browne in Herb. Linn, named 

 by Linnaeus. 



Sandbox Tree. 



Browne ! Macfadyen- ! Purdie 1 Mt. Diablo Prior I Harris ! Fl. Jam. 

 8383.— West Indies, tropical continental America ; cultivated and some- 

 times naturalized in the tropics of the Old World. 



Tree 30-80(-100) ft. high ; branches spiny or unarmed. Leaves 

 5'3 dm. 1., roundish-ovate, abruptly and shortly acuminate, base cordate 

 or rounded, entire, or obscurely or conspicuously wavy-toothed, more or 

 less pubescent on the nerves beneath, densely so at base of midrib, papery- 

 membranous ; petiole as long as, or longer than the limb or sometimes 

 shorter; stipules lanceolate, 1-1 "5 cm. 1 ., soon falling. Spike, male bright 

 red, 3-5 cm. 1. ; peduncle 5-11 cm. 1. Anther-cells usually in 2 whorls. 

 Female flower dull red, subsessile, or peduncle to 2 cm. 1. Ovary with 

 style at length 3-4(-5) cm. 1. Capsule to 8 cm. in diam., 4 cm. high, 

 depressed-globular concave above and below, furrowed between the cocci. 

 Seeds about 2 cm. in diam. 



29. EUPHORBIA L. 



Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs, with acrid milky juice. Leaves, 

 the lower or all alternate, or the upper or all opposite, simple, 

 margin entire or toothed. Several male flowers and one female 

 flower enclosed within an involucre, a " cyathium." Involucre 

 calyx-liko, campanulate to cylindrical, regular or a little unequal, 

 lobes 4-5 ; glands as many or fewer, outside the lobes and alternate 

 with them. Male flowers within the involucre indefinite in 

 number, stalked. Pei?ianth none or sometimes repi*esented by a 



