BBEYNIA.] EUPHORBIACE&. 9$ 



Himalaya up to 5,000 ft. ; common also in the Punjab Plain and in 

 Sind, extending to Kanara, the Carnatic, Ceylon and Upper Burma. 



7. BREYNIA, Forst.; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 329. 



Shrubs or small trees. Leaves small, alternate, petioled, entire, 

 often distichous. Flowers monoecious, axillary, minute ; pedicels 

 distinct, solitary or the males in fascicles. Perianth simple. MALE- 

 flowers : Calyx turbinate or hemispheric with a truncate limb ; 

 margin often thickened and lobulate opposite the minute inflexed 

 and rounded lobes. Petals none. Disk none. Stamens 3, filaments 

 connate ; anthers slender, adnate to the whole length of the column ; 

 cells linear, parallel, distinct. Pistiltode none. FEM. -flowers : 

 Calyx coriaceous, turbinate or rotate ; limb broadly and shortly 

 6-lobed, often much enlarged and disciform in fruit. Petals disk, 

 and staminodes none. Ovary 3-celled, fleshy above, globose 

 truncate or depressed at the apex ; styles 3, sessile or connate- 

 in a short column, each 2-fid. or 2-lobed ; or stigmas 3, minute, 

 simple and immersed in a cavity at the top of the ovary; ovules 

 2 in each cell. Fruit globose or depressed, more or less succulent, 

 indehiscent or with a 6-valved pericarp enclosing 3-6 imperforate 

 indehiscent cocci. Seeds with a membranous testa, hilum without 

 a caruncle, albumen fleshy, cotyledons broad, radicle long. 

 Species 12, in Trop. Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands. 



B. rhamnoides Muell. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv 9 part 2, 440 ; 

 Brandis For. Fl. 455 ; Ind. Trees 568 ; F. B. I. v, 330 ; Watt E. D.; 

 Gamble Man. 604 ; Frain Beng. PL 933 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 583. 

 Phyllanthus Vitis-Idoaa, Roxb. Fl. Ind. Hi, 665. Vein. Tikkar 

 (Oudh). 



A shrub or small tree, quite glabrous. Bark rough, yellowish-brown. 

 Branches many, horizontal ; branchlets flexuous, angular. Leaves 

 many, membranous, distichous, shortly stalked, f-lj in. long, elliptic, 

 obtuse or subacute, pale beneath, turning dark'brown or black when 

 dry, base subacute or rounded'; petiole T \j in. ; stipules ^ in., subulate 

 from a triangular base. Flowers very small, on filiform pedicels, 

 the males usually in small fascicles, females generally solitary. MALE- 

 flowers : Calyx turbinate or subcampanulate, mouth entire or 

 obscurely lobed. Staminal column truncate at the apex and produced 

 beyond the adnate anthers. FEM. -flowers. Calyx cup-shaped * 

 hardly enlarged in fruit ; lobes 6, acute. Ovary exserted, oblong, 



