SphyrantJiera.] cxxxv. EUPHOBBIACEJJ. (J. D. Hooker.) 477' 



77. SPHYRANTHERA, Hook.f. 



An evergreen bush ; branches slender, puberulous. Leaves alternate, 

 petioled, elliptic-lanceolate, obtusely acuminate, entire, penninerved. Flowers 

 minute, dioecious ; males subumbellately crowded on the top of a slender 

 solitary axillary peduncle, emerging from a capitate cluster of very minute 

 pubescent imbricating bracts ; buds globosely ovoid. Sepals 4, broadly 

 ovate, acute, concave, pubescent without, valvate. Petals P much smaller 

 than the sepals, membranous, variable, entire or cleft to the base into two 

 lanceolate segments. Stamens about 20, in the centre of the flower, filaments 

 filiform, free ; anther-cells globose, distant, divaricate, one at each end of the 

 rather dilated connective. Fern. ft. and. fruit unknown. 



S. capitellata, HooJc. f. Ic. Plant, t. 1702 ; Codiseum ? lutescens, 

 Kurz For. Fl. ii. 405. 



MIDDLE ANDAMAN ISLAND; in bamboo jungles along the Middle Straits, 

 Kurz. 



A bush, 10-12 ft., of a yellowish green. Leaves 3-5 in., rather membranous, 

 straight or subfalcate, narrowed into a petiole | in. long ; nerves 10-15 pairs, slender. 

 Peduncles i in., slender, pubescent, pedicels ^ in., decurved. Petals or disk-glands 

 sometimes subspathulate. I am quite uncertain as to the affinities of this curious 

 plant. I had named, figured, and described it before recognizing it as Kurz's 

 Codiceum ? lutescens, or I should have adopted his specific name. 



ORDER CXXXYI. URTICACE.< 



Herbs, shrubs or trees. Leaves rarely opposite, often oblique. Stipules 

 various. Inflorescence cymose or clustered ; flowers usually minute, mono- 

 or di-oecious, rarely unisexual, often crowded on the surface of a fleshy flat 

 concave or globose involucre, or on (in Ficus) the inner walls of a closed 

 receptacle. Perianth equally or unequally toothed, lobed or partite. 

 Stamens as many as and opposite the perianth divisions, or fewer; anthers 

 2-celled. Pistillode small or 0. Ovary superior, 1-celled, style often 

 excentric, simple or 2-fid with stigmatose arms, or stigma sessile 

 plumose or penicillate ; ovule solitary. Fruit simple, a drupe or samara 

 or of small indehiscent free achenes, or compound as a confluent mass of 

 perianths and pericarps. . Seed erect or pendulous, testa membranous ; 

 albumen copious, scanty or ; embryo various. Genera 108 ; species 1500, 

 chiefly tropical. 



The seven tribes of Urticece here adopted (following Gen. Plant.) are by many 

 considered as 2 or more Orders. 



Phenax Sonneratii,We&d. (DC. Prod. xvi. i. 235"), a S. American herb, differing 

 from Maoutia in the filiform stigma, is, according to Sonnerat, an Indian plant ; if so, 

 no doubt introduced. 



TRIBE I. Ulmeae. Trees, sap watery. Flowers usually 2-sexual or 

 polygamous, appearing before the leaves. Anthers erect in bud. Style 

 2-fid. Ovule pendulous, anatropous. Fruit dry. 



Leaves serrate. Cotyledons flat 1. ULMTJS. 



Leaves entire (serrate in young plants). Cotyledons 



iolded 2. HOLOPTELEA.. 



TRIBE II. Celtideae. Character of Ulmece, but fruit a drupe. 

 Male sepals imbricate. Stipules free. Cotyledons broad 3. CELTIS. 



