88 . EUPHORBIACEJS. [CLEISTANTHUS. 



or the females shortly pedicelled. MALE flowers : Calyx-seg- 

 ments 5, valvate. Petals 5, short, scale-like, stalked or spathulate. 

 Disk broad, entire or sinuate. Stamens 5 ; filaments connate 

 below in a central column, bearing a pyramidal or 3-lobed pistil- 

 lode, free and spreading above ; anther-cells parallel. FEM.-flowers : 

 Calyx less deeply lobed than in the male, cupular under the ovary. 

 Disk double, the inner conic or turbinate, more or less enclosing 

 the young ovary. Ovary 3 (rarely 4) -celled, usually clothed with 

 long hairs ; ovules 2 in each cell ; styles 3, free, 2-fid. Fruit a 

 sessile or stipitate subglobose or depressed capsule with three 2- 

 valved cocci. Seeds without an aril or arillode ; albumen copious 

 or scanty ; cotyledons thin or fleshy, often folded. Species about 

 30, in Tropical India, Malaya and Africa. 



C. collinus, Benth. in Gen. PI. iii, 268 ; F. B. I. v 274 ; Gamble 

 Man. 597 ; Brandis Ind. Trees 561; Prain Beng. PL 928. Lebidi- 

 oropsis orbicularis, Muell-Arg. ; Brandis For. Fl. 450 ; Watt E. D. 

 Cluytia collina, Eoxb. ; Fl. Ind. Hi, 732. 



A small tree with a dark rough bark ; branches stiff, smooth or pustu- 

 late. Leaves coriaceous, 1J-4 in. long, orbicular broadly obovate or 

 elliptic, rounded or retuse at the apex, glaucous beneath, pale when 

 dry ; main lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, very slender ; petiole J in., 

 slender. Flowers in small axillary and shortly spicate villous clus- 

 ters. Calyx J in. in diam., ovate-lanceolate. Petals narrow, fleshy, 

 incurved. Disk of male-flowers pulvinate ; of the females conical 

 with a thick margin. Ovary globose, glabrous ; styles free, thick, 

 stigmas lobed. Capsule sessile, rounded, in. in diam., obscurely 

 3-lobed, dark-brown, shining and wrinkled when dry. Seeds ^ in. 

 in diam., globose, reddish-brown. 



Forests of Bundelkhand. Flowers in June, and the fruit ripens during 

 the cold season. DISTRIB. : From the C. Provinces, Chota Nagpur 

 and Circars to S. India and Ceylon. The hard and tough dark- 

 coloured wood is much valued for posts and poles. The capsules, as 

 well as the leaves and roots, are said to be very poisonous. 



5. GLOCHIDION, Forst.; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 305. 



Evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, bifarious, shortly 

 petioled, entire. Flowers small, in axillary clusters, monoecious 

 or dioecious. Perianth simple. Petals none. Disk none. MALE- 



