112 EUPHORBIACE&. [ HOMONOIA. 



H. riparla, Lour. FL Cochinch. 637 ; Erandis For. Fl. 445 ; 

 Ind. Trees 593 ; F. B. I. v, 455 ; Watt E. D.; Gamble Man. 622 ; 

 Prain Beng. PI. 951 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 620 ; Adelia neriifolia,, 

 Roth ; Roxb. FL Ind. w, 849. 



A small evergreen willow -like shrub with brown bark ; branchlets young 

 leaves and inflorescence pubescent. Leaves erect, closely set, 3-6 in. 

 long, linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, acute, apiculate, entire or 

 serrulate towards the tip, glabrous above, densely clothed beneath 

 with reddish-brown orbicular gland-like scales ; base acute or rounded ; 

 main lateral nerves 10-30 pairs, the veins between them reticulate ; 

 petioles J-f in. long.; stipules in. long, linear-lanceolate, acute. 

 Flowers dioecious, sessile, in axillary bracteate spikes 2-5 in. long ; 

 rhachis pubescent ; bracts ovate -acuminate, pubescent. MALE 

 flowers : Sepals 3, broadly elliptic, concave, glabrous, J in. long. 

 Anthers red. FEM. flowers. Sepals usually 5, narrowly ovate, 

 acuminate, in. long, pubescent. Ovary pubescent ; styles 3, shortly 

 connate at the base. Capsule globose, J in. in diam., tomentose. 

 Seeds T ^ in. long, smooth, yellowish -brown. 



Bundelkhand, in rocky river-beds (Edgworth, Duthie, etc.). DISTRIB. t 

 Bengal, Sikkim, Chittagong, Assam, Khasia Hills, Burma and south- 

 wards to Central and W. India to Ceylon ; extending to the Andaman 

 Islands, Cochinchina and Java. 



19. RICINUS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 457. 



A tall glabrous and glaucous annual, sometimes shrubby o r 

 tree-like. Leaves alternate, broad, palmately lobed ; lobes 7 o r 

 more, serrate. Flowers monoecious, rather large, in terminal sub- 

 paniculate racemes. Perianth simple and without any disk, the 

 male flowers crowded in the upper portion of the inflorescence, the 

 females below. MALE flowers : Calyx membranous, splitting 

 valvately into 3-5 segments. Stamens very many ; filaments 

 connate and repeatedly branched ; anthers with distinct distant 

 sub-globose divergent cells. Pistillode none. FEM. flowers : Calyx 

 spathaceous, caducous. Ovary 3-celled ; styles entire, 2-fid. or 

 2-partite ; ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit a prickly capsule of 

 three 2-valved cocci. Seeds oblong, testa crustaceous, albumen 

 fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat. A single species, probably of 

 African origin, now widely cultivated in tropical countries. 



