BALIOSPERMUM. ] EUPHORBIACE&. 107 



cocci. Seeds ovoid, testa crustaceous, albumen fleshy, cotyledons 

 flat and broad. Species 6, in India and Malaya. 



B. axillare. Blume Bijdr. 604 ; F. B. I. r, 461 ; Kan j Hal 

 For. Fl. (ed. 2], 357 ; Gamble Man. 624 ; Prain Beng. PL 946, 

 Brandis Ind. Trees 583, Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 608. B. indicum, 

 Dene, in Jacqm. Voy. Bot. 154, t. 155. B. montanum, Muell. Arg., 

 Watt E. D.; Croton polyandrum, Roxb. Fl. Ind. Hi, 682 ; Royle III, 

 327, 328. 



A stout leafy tmdershrub 3-6 ft. high with herbaceous branches from 

 the root, glabrous except the young shoots and sometimes the leaves 

 beneath. Leaves firmly coriaceous, very variable hi size and shap ; 

 the upper 2-3 in. long, lanceolate, penninerved ; the lower 6-12 in. 

 long, often palmately 3-5-lobed and with sinuate-toothed margins ; 

 base rounded or cuneate ; petioles 2-6 in. long ; stipules of 2 glands. 

 Flowers usually monoecious, arranged in many axillary racemes or 

 contracted panicles, all male or with a few females at the base. 

 MALE flowers : Calyr globose, -f- t in., 4-5-partite, often slightly 

 hairy ; segments finely mottled. Disk of 6 glands. Stamens about 

 20. FEM. flowers. Sepals not enlarging in fruit. Disk thin, 

 -r 1 ^ in. in diam. Ovary hairy ; styles about T 'g in. long, thick, 2- 

 partite, dull-red. Capsules J-J in. long, obovoid, usually hairy. Seeds 

 J in. long, smooth, mottled. 



Dehra Dun, in shady places, and eastwards along the Sub-Himalayan 

 forest tracts, where it often forms a considerable portion of the under- 

 growth. It flowers and produces fruit almost throughout the year. 

 DISTRIB. : Outer ranges of Himalaya from Kashmir to Bhutan up to 

 3,000 ft. ; also Assam, Khasia Hills, Bengal, Chittagong, Burma and 

 Siam, and from C. & W. India to Travancore ; extending to Java 

 and the Malay Peninsula. The seed, which resembles that of the 

 Castor-oil plant, but smaller, is used as a drastic purgative, and the 

 root and leaves are much employed in Hindu medicine. 



15. ACALYPHA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 414. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, toothed or crenate, 

 rarely entire, penniveined or 3-5-nerved. Flowers small, monce- 

 cious or occasionally dioecious, apetalous and without a disk, 

 arranged in axillary or terminal racemes ; males minute, without 

 bracts ; females 1-2, within a peduncled solitary bract, or sometimes 

 at the base of large accrescent leafy bracts, low on the male spikes- 



