Phyttanthtte.] cxxxv. EUPHORBIACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 295 



X. 



ribbed erect, leaves J-f in. shortly petioled coriaceous elliptic linear- or 

 obovate-obloug obtuse or acute margins recurved, stipules broad peltate, 

 male fl. shortly fern, louger-pedicelled, filaments connate to the middle, 

 anthers didymous, disk of fern, broad 6-lobed, styles reflexed 2-partite, cap- 

 sule minute, seeds rugulose. Muell. Arg. in Linneea xxxii. 28, and in DC. 

 Prodr. xv. ii. 385. 



KHASIA MTS., alt. 5-6000 ft., Wallich, &c. MUNNIPOEE, Watt. 



A small shrub, with erect leafy densely fascicled rigid woody branches, and slender 

 grooved branchlets. Leaves dense, suberect, glaucous beneath, pale greenish when 

 dry; base cordate or rounded ; nerves 5-6 pair, faint beneath ; petiole^ in., stout; 

 stipules membranous. Flowers from tufts of firnbriate bracts, males T \y in. diam., on 

 very short pedicels; fern. \y in., fruiting -^ in. diain., spreading. Sepals 5 or 6, 

 broadly oblong. Disk of male of glands; of fern, broad, expanded, lobes broad emar- 

 giuate. Style-arms slender, straight. Capsule T V- F i n - diam., depressed globose, 

 crustaceous, faintly 3-lobed. Seeds transversely rugulose on the back, strialed in a 

 radiating manner on the sides. I find no means of distinguishing Mueller's v&r.genuinus 

 and parvifolius. 



26. P. simplex, Retz. Obs. v. 29 ; annual or suffruticose, quite gla- 

 brous, branches compressed, leaves distichous -! in. subsessile from linear 

 to oblong-obovate elliptic and rounded obtuse acute or apiculate, stipules 

 peltate subsagittate, fern, flowers on short or long pedicels, filaments free, 

 anthers didymous, ovary smooth or pubescent granular, styles short free 

 reflexed arms recurved, capsule minute smooth or sparsely echinate, seeds 

 minutely tubercled. Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 391. 



Throughout INDIA, in the plains and low hills from Kumaon to Assam and 

 southward to TEAVANCOE, MALACCA and CEYLON, ascending the hills to 6000 ft. 

 DISTEIB. Malay Islands, China, Mongolia, Pacific Islands. 



Stem either woody below with strict erect slender flattened leafy branches, or erect 

 with spreading branches, and 3 ft. high ; or a low dwarf bush with fascicled 

 terete branches and compi-essed branchlets. Leaves sometimes distichously imbri- 

 cating towards the ends of the branchlets, rather coriaceous and glaucous beneath ; 

 ^petiole minute or ; stipules very variable, entire or toothed or fimbriate. Flowers 

 often 3-nate 2 males and 1 female, or more frequently the females solitary in the upper 

 axils; males very minute, ~ im diam., pedicel capillary Tg nji n -5 f em - O11 much 

 longer stouter pedicels shorter or longer than the leaves. Sepals broadly oblong, 

 fern, slightly enlarged in fruit. Disk of male of large rounded glands, of fern, annular. 

 Styles variable in length. Capsule T V~nF m - diam. ; depressed globose, smooth, crus- 

 taceous. Seeds -^ in. long, covered loosely with minute tubercles in irregular lines. 

 A most variable plant, of which Mueller has established four Indian varieties, differing 

 greatly in their extreme forms, but connected by innumerable intermediates. To these 

 I add, as a fifth, his P. Miquelianus. 



P. SIMPLEX PEOPER ; stems many from a woody stock erect or ascending curved 

 or strict flattened, leaves usually narrow and long sometimes 1 in., fern, pedicels 

 shorter than the leaves. P. simplex, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 654 ; Wall. Cat. 7898 

 (excl. part of D) ; Dalz. $ Gibs. Bomb. 'Fl. 234. P. anceps, Heyne in Vahl 

 Symb. ii. 95. P. virgatus, Herb. Madr. P. depressus, Herb. Russell. P. simplex, 

 var. genuinus, Muell. I. c. 



VAE. oblongifolia, Muell. Arg. in Linncea xxxii. 32, aud in DC. I.e. ; stem erect 

 diffusely branched, leaves |-f in. long elliptic-oblong subacute, fern, pedicels ^-^ in. 

 Macraea oblongifolia, Wight Ic. t. 1902, f. 1. ? Melanthesa rupestris, Miquel Fl. Ind. 

 Sat. i. ii. 371. Deccan Peninsula and Ceylon. I can hardly distinguish this from 

 var. Gardneriana. I have seen no specimens of Miquel's Melanthesa rupestris. 



Var. Gardneriana, Muell. Arg. in Linncea I. c., and in DC. I. c. 392 ; usually 

 glabrous, branches very long and slender from a short stock, branchlets angular hardly 

 compressed, leaves from linear to broadly oblong, male fl. often fascicled, styles slender, 

 capsule smooth. P. Gardner!, Thwaites Enum. 282. P. Gardnerianus, aiU. Etudes 



