Breym'a.] cxxxv. EQPHORBIACE^. (J. D. Hooker.) 331 



7914. 'P. cinerascens, Wall. Cat. 7915 0. P. virosus, H~rrb. Wight in 

 Wall. Cat. 7939 C. P. oMoDgifolius, Dennst. in Dillw. Rev. Sort. Mai. 24. 

 P. tinctorius, Vahl mss. (ex JBaill.). 



Throughout TROPICAL INDIA ; from OUDH, Hamilton, and BANDA, EdgewortJi, 

 eastwards to UPPKK ASSAM and BITKMA. and southwards to TRAVANCORE, MALACCA, 

 SINGAPORE and CEYLON. DISTRIB. China, Malay Islands, Philippines. 



A shrub or small tire ; branches horizontal, flexuous, bifarious. Leaves f-1 in., 

 dark brown or black when dry, pale beneath ; petiole -^ in. ; stipules minute. 

 Flowers often dioecious ?, yV~rV ^ n - l n rT pedicels usually decurved, variable in 

 length. Staminal column truncate. Ovary exserted ; styles very obscure. Fruit in. 

 diavn., red, succulent. Seeds % in. long ; testa im per for ate except at the very base. 

 Very near B. cernua of the Malay Archipelago, but. the fem. calyx is much smaller. 

 Edgeworth's Banda specimens have not blackened in drying. Mueller and others 

 describe the male fl. as springing from minute branchlets densely clothed with bracts, 

 but this is only occasionally the case. 



5. B. discigrera, Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 440 ; finely 

 tomeutose, leaves shortly petioled elliptic rounded or ovate acute or sub- 

 acute, flowers solitary very shortly pedicelled, male calyx tnrbinate or hemi- 

 spheric outer margin of tube entire, fem. rotate shortly 6-lobed pubescent all 

 over, ovary tnrbinate stigmas minute, fruit seated on the slightly enlarged 

 pubescent calyx crowned with a raised ring. B. rhamnoides, y. puhes- 

 cens, Muell. Arg. 1. c. 441. Phyllanthus pubescens, Wall. Cat. 7917 A, B. 



PENANG, WalUch, Curtis. SINGAPORE, Jaeger, Cantley. DISTEIB. Siam. 



Branches and branchlets terete. Leaves -1$ in., thinly coriaceous, black above 

 when dry, beneath paler or glaucous, sparsely pubescent above, shortly tomentose 

 beneath; nerves 4-6 pair; petiole -rV~To U1< Flowers sub*olitary, minute; males, 

 Jg- in. long, about as long as their pedicels ; tube pubescent, teeth inflexed glabrous ; 

 fem. subsessile, in diam., lobes very shallow, apiculate. Staminal column fusiform, 

 truncate. Ovary with a convex top. Fruit jrlobose, ^ in. diaui., coriaceous ; cocci 

 with a small basal hole. Seeds % in. long. Wallich's 7917 C is a very different plant, 

 with rounded subcordate leaves, from Burma (Kayouk Talong) ; it is neither in flower 

 nor fruit. 



6. B. reclinata, Hook.f. ; quite glabrous, branches long divaricate, 

 leaves shortly petioled coriaceous elliptic ovate subacnte very glaucous 

 beneath, flowers shortly pedicelled, calyx of male hemispheric thickened 

 mouth of tube C-crenate, of fem. turbinate shortly 6-lobed, ovary truncate, 

 fruit small seated on the small calyx. B. rbamnoides, var. hypoglauca, 

 Muell. Arg. in Linnaa xxxii. 73. and in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 440. B. race- 

 mosa, Muell. Arg. in DC. I. c. 441 in part. Melanthesa reclinata, Muell. 

 Arg. in Linncea I. c. 74. Phyllanthus reclinatus, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 669. 



SINGAPORE and MALACCA, Griffith (Kew Distrib. 4813, Maingay 1356), &c. 

 DISTRIB. Sumatra, Java. 



A subscandent shrub, black when dr^, branches and long branchlets terete, decurved. 

 Leaves 1-1| in.; nerves 4-6 pairs; petiole T.J- T V > u - ; stipules minute. Flowers 

 yellow, on short usually decurved pedicels; males -^ in. long, mouth contracted; 

 fem. rather larger, broadly funnel-shaped. Staminal column truncate. Ooary exserted, 

 truncate, stigmas minute. Fruit \ in. diam., globose, depressed, red. Seeds T ^ in. 

 long, with a triangular basal ventral cavity. Mueller's B. racemosa is a mixture ; it 

 contains Zollinger's No. 177 from Java, which is undoubtedly B. reclinata, and I 

 hence assume that the Singapore plant referred to racemosa is also reclinata ; but 

 Zollinger's No. 176, with a much smaller fruit and a much enlarged calyx, is quite a 

 different species, possibly B. virgata. Mueller has, in DC. Prodr., erroneously referred 

 Roxburgh's P. reclinatus to the Chinese Breynia (Melanthesopsis} fruticosa (Melan- 

 thtsa chinensis, Blume) , together with Wallich's No. 7925, which is a third plant from 

 Siam. 



