5 34 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



31. Phenax Wedd. 1 — Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Male 

 calyx 3-5-lobed; lobes ovate, usually rather long mucronate below 

 apex, more rarely transversely folded. Stamens 3-5 ; filaments 

 thick, sometimes adnate at base to rudiment of gynseceum. Rudi- 

 ment of gynseceum narrowly conical or linear, lanate. Female calyx 

 0. 2 Geraien ovoid glabrous or hairy at margin at apex ; ovule almost 

 erect ; stigma elongated filiform, one side glabrous or hairy ; the other 

 subvillous. Achene ovoid minute ventricose, usually punctulate- 

 verruculose, crowned with stigma and for a long time obvallate-con- 

 cealed by scarious floral bract ; pericarp thin crustaceous. Seed 

 erect ; cotyledons of albuminous embryo subrotundate, a little longer 

 than terete radicle. — Shrubs or undershrubs, diffusely branching, 

 glabrous or variously downy ; leaves alternate petiolate equilateral, 

 entire or more often dentate, 3-5-ribbed ; cystoliths very small 

 punctiform ; stipules free rusty-scarious ; flowers axillary densely 

 conglomerate ; both sexes intermingled ; male pedicels articulate ; 

 female 0, or nearly absent; bracts rusty, sometimes rather large, 

 usually ciliate (Tropical America, Mauritius). 



32 ? Leucosyke Zoll. & Mor. 4 — Flowers monoecious or very often 

 dioecious. Male calyx 4, 5 -partite ; segments ovate acute, valvate. 

 Stamens 4, 5. Piudiment of gynseceum conical, glabrous or lanate. 

 Female calyx short or very short, cupuliform, shortly and usually ob- 

 tusely 4, 5-dentate. Germen oblique elliptical-ovoid subcompressed, 

 glabrous or strigillose at margins above ; ovule erect ; funicle short ; 

 exostome usually dilated fimbriate, adherent to top t)f cell ; stigma 

 subpeltate or penicillate-capitate long-papillose. Achene sometimes 

 rather fleshy subdrupaceous outside ; endocarp chartaceous. Seeds 

 erect; albumen scanty, cotyledons elliptical, hardly longer than terete 

 radicle. — Small trees or shrubs; leaves 2 -stichously alternate subequi- 

 lateral, more or less serrate, 3-ribbed, grey-tomentose beneath ; stipules 

 2, connate to 1 axillary, 2-fid ; male flowers glomerulate, bracteate ; 



1 In Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, i. 191 ; Monogr., (Boelirneria). — Sw., Fl. Ind. Occ, i. 285 (Pro- 

 490, t. 16, A; Prodr., 235 36 . oris).— Geiseb., Cat. PI. Cub., 60 (Procris).— 



2 According to Bl., equal to germen, and MlQ., in ILart. Fl. Bras., Urtic, 194 (Ges- 

 closely adnate as far as apex. nouinia). 



3 Spec. 10. Speexg., Syst., iii. 817 (Prccris). 4 Verzn., 76. — MlQ., in Zoll. et Mor. Verzn., 

 — Jacq., Eclog., t. 135 (Bcelimeria). — Poie., 100. — Widd., Prodr., 235 :6 . — Missiessya 

 Bid., v. 15, n. 4 (Parietaria) ; 628, n. 2 (Pro- G^rDiCH., Voy. Coq., Pot., t. 93. 



cris). — H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, ii. 34 



