cortechinia.~\ cxxxv. EUPHORBIACE.S. (J. D. Hooker.) 367 



shiny above; nerves 6-8 pair, arched, anastomosing, slightly raised above, more 

 so beneath ; petiole |-1 in. ; stipules small, lanceolate. Panicles shortly peduncled, 

 hoary, 2-6 in. long, branches spreading. Male fl. -^ in. diam. ; sepals tumid on the 

 back. Stamens .included ; anthers basifixed. Fruit erect, 1-1 in- longi stoutly very 

 shortly pedicelled, clothed with an appressed white tomentum. Seed rounded at 

 both ends, pendulous from a spermaphore that is longitudinally attached to the walla 

 of the cavity from its apex for $ way down, eventually free below ; albumen forming 

 a dense covering of the embryo. The spermaphore consists of the remains of the axis 

 and septa, and bears at the top opposite to the insertion of the seed (that next to the 

 wall of the capsule) a minute ovule. The position of the undeveloped 1 ovule may 

 indicate its having been solitary in a normally 2-(or 3-)celled ovary, of which the 

 remains of the septa and axis form the column from which the seed is suspended. 



2. S. nicobarica, Hook.f. ; leaves with. 2 prominent glands above at 

 the insertion of the petiole. 



NICOBAB ISLANDS ; Novara Expedition (in Herb. Sort. Sot. Calcutt.}. 



Leaf elliptic, 6 by 3 in., sinuate serrate, nerves about 8 pair; petiole 1^ in., 

 slender. Capsule 1 in., as in 8. Kingii. I am indebted to frr. King for a fruit and 

 leaf of this very distinct species. 



25. BACCAUREA, Lour. 



Evergreen trees. Leaves alternate, entire, rarely crenate-serrate, penni- 

 nerved. Flowers in simple or compound spiciform racemes or racemiform 

 panicles, dioecious, rarely monoecious, apetalous ; males usually very minute, 

 hoary or tomentose. Disk 0, or of obscure glands in the male fl. MALE FL. 

 Sepals 4-5, usually unequal, imbricate. Stamens 4-8, filaments short free ; 

 anthers small, didymous. Pistillode pubescent, orbicular, sessile or sti- 

 pitate, rarely an irregular cleft column. FEM. FL. Sepals 4-6, linear or 

 oblong, much larger than in the male. Ovary^ 2-5-celled, ovoid or globose ; 

 stigmas 2-5, small, sessile, free or connate into a short style, 2-lobed or 

 -cleft, arms broad or subulate, papillose, rarely united into one peltate 

 stigma ; ovules 2 in each cell. Fruit ovoid globose obovoid or fusiform, 2-4- 

 celled; pericarp thick or thin, coriaceous crustaceous or woody, tardily 

 loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds broad, usually dorsally compressed or flat- 

 tened, testa with a thick fleshy coat (aril ?) ; albumen fleshy or hard ; coty- 

 ledons broad, flat. Species about 30, Tropical Asiatic, African and 

 Polynesian. 



The species of this genus are most difficult of discrimination, owing to the 

 necessity of having: for this purpose flowers of both sexes and also ripe fruit, and 

 because in foliage very different species resemble one another. The male inflo- 

 rescence appears to me to afford the best sectional characters, but it may have to 

 yield to carpological ones, when the fruits are better known. The male flowers of 

 individual species are very inconstant as to number and form of sepals, and number 

 of stamens. The disk-glands, when present, are too minute and, I think, variable as 

 to presence or absence, to afford aid in the Indian species ; nor do I find the 

 anthers truly extrorse in any, the slits being more or less lateral when not truly in- 

 trorse. In this as in so many other genera, I am rarely able to identify the .Indian 

 species with the Malayan, from want of good specimens of the latter. I am greatly 

 indebted to Dr. King for the loan of the extensive collection of Baccaurea of the 

 Calcutta Herbarium, without which I could not have completed even this imperfect 

 sketch of the Indian species. 



Series I. Male racemes simple or nearly so ; bracts very minute at the 

 base of the simple clusters of flowers. 



1. B. courtallensis, Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 459 ; gla- 



VOL. V. B b 



