Polydragma.~\ cxxxv. EUPHORBIACE^. (J. D. Hooker.) 457 



cuspidately caudate or acuminate, penninerved, eglandular. Floivers 

 small in axillary racemes, dioecious, apetalous. Disk 0. MALE FL. globose 

 in bud. Sepals 3, broad, concave, valvate. Stamens very many, filaments 

 combined below in 6 bundles, each bundle branching out at the top into a 

 globose mass of btipitate didymous anthers, connective arching over the top 

 of both cells. Pistillode 0. FEM. FL. Sepals 5, unequal, lanceolate, erect. 

 Ovary globose, granulate and hispid ; styles 3, elongate, subulate, erect, 

 papillose on the inner surface, ovules 1 in each cell. Fruit? 



P. mallotiformis, Hook, f. 



MALAY PENINSULA; Perak, ScortecMni. 



Branches slender, terete, woody, bianchlets and racemes finely pubescent. Leaves 

 6-9 in., membranous, green when dry, base acute or cuneate; nerves 5-6 pairs, with 

 a very short basal marginal pair, all and the midrib very slender, cross-uervules 

 distant; petiole 1^2 in., slender, hoary; stipules small, subulate. Male racemes 

 spiciform, solitary but numerous, 1-3 in., erect; pedicels short, 3-bracteate; bracts 

 minute, ovate, acute; buds ^ in. diam. ; sepals membranous, nearly glabrous, obtuse, 

 3-nerved ; filaments in 6 (rarely more) bundles, branching irregularly from below 

 the middle; anthers innumerable, cells connate, connective forking at the top and 

 arching over each cell but quite inconspicuous between them. Fein, racemes 3-4 in., 

 slender, erect, lax-fld. to the base ; pedicels -5 in., 3-bracteoJate at the base ; 

 sepals T {, in., pubescent and ciliate ; ovary covered with minute rounded tubercles and 

 also sparsely hairy; styles about twice as long as the sepals. 



60*. RXCXNUS, Linn. 



A tall glabrous annual, sometimes shrubby or subarboreous. Leaves 

 alternate, broad, palmately 7-many-lobed, serrate. Flowers large, in ter- 

 minal subpanicled racemes, monoecious, apetalous, upper male crowded, 

 lower female. Disk 0. MALE FL. Calyx membranous, splitting into 3-5 

 valvate segments. Stamens very many, filaments crowded variously con- 

 nate or in branching clusters ; anther-cells distinct, distant, subglobose, 

 divergent. Pistillode 0. FEM. FL. Calyx spathaceous, caducous. Ovary 

 3-celled ; styles short or long, spreading, often very large, entire 2-fid or 2- 

 partite, feathery or papillose ; cells 1-ovuled. Capsule of 3 2-valved cocci. 

 Seeds oblong, testa crustaceous, albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat. 



R. communis, Linn. Sp. PI. 1007 ; Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 

 1017 ; Roxb. FL Ind. iii. 689 ; Brand. For. Fl. 445 ; Kurz For. FL ii. 400 ; 

 Grah. Cat. Bomb. PL 183; Dalz. $ Gibs. Bomb. FL Suppl. 78; Gamble 

 Man. Ind. Timb. 363 ; Sibth. Flor. Gret c. x. t. 952 ; Hayne Arzneigew. x. 

 t. 48 ; Schkuhr Handb. t. 312 ; Benth. Sf Trim. Med. PL iv. t. 237 ; Gcertn. 

 Fruct. t. 107 ; Baill. Etudes Gen. JEuphorb. t. 10, 11 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2209. 

 R. inermis, Jacq. Ic. Rar. i. 1. 195. E-. lividus, Jacq. Ic. Rar. i. t. 196 ; 

 Schkuhr Handb. t. 312 ; Reichb. Hort. Bot. t. 153. R speciosus, Burm. 

 FL Ind. 307, t. 63, f. 2. R. speotabilis, Blume Bijd. 623. B. viridis, Willd. 

 Hort. Berol. t. 49. Croton spinosus, Linn. Sp. PL. 1005. Wall. Cat. 7804 

 Rheede Hort. Mai. ii. t. 32. 



Cultivated throughout INDIA and naturalized near habitations. DISTEIB. Tropics 

 generally, probably indigenous in Africa. 



An evergreen bush or small tree; shoots and panicles glaucous. Leaves green or 

 reddish, 12 ft. diam., membranous, lobea from oblong to linear acute or acuminate, 

 g land -serra ted j petiole 4-12 in. Racemes stout, erect. Male fl. % in. diam. ; fern. 



