EUPHORBIAGEJi. 127 



contaiuiug oue American aud one South. Afi-iean species, also much 

 resembles Tragia. The numerous stamens, with elongated basi- 

 fixed anthers, adhering dorsally by their whole length to the con- 

 nective, are inserted on a conA^ex receptacle. The female have a 

 variable number of imbricated sepals, entire in the American species, 

 pinnatifid in the other. In Bocquillonia^ consisting of woody plants 

 from New Caledonia, the valvate calyx of the male flowers, inserted 

 on the wood of the branches, envelops only two or thi-ee small sta- 

 mens slightly monadelphous, with or without a rudiment of gynse- 

 ceum. The trimerous ovary is surrounded by an imbricated calyx. 

 In Clachgynos, a native of Timor, there are said to be four mona- 

 delphous stamens and a trilocular ovary, surmounted by a style 

 with three glandular plumose branches. This genus thus, it would 

 seem, allied to Ccphalocroton, consists of shrubs from India and 

 trojiical Eastern Africa, continental and insular, whose male flower 

 presents round a central column (rudimentary gynsjeceum) from foiu' 

 to eight stamens with introrse anthers, supported by a filament often 

 twice folded upon itself near the summit. The calyx of the female 

 flower is formed of from four to six imbricated pieces, more or less 

 deeply cut upon the edges. Ccvlodcpas^ a Javanese tree, seems to 

 differ from the preceding genus only by the independent and sus- 

 pended anther cells. In Si/Dtpliijllin , formed of Indian shrubs, the 

 characters of the flowers are nearly the same as in Ccphalocroton ; 

 but the habit and inflorescence are very different. The leaves are 

 almost always collected in verticils at the summit of the branches ; 

 the flowers are grouped in ramified spikes ; the male flowers are 

 3-5-mcrous ; the anthers erect and emarginate round a rudiment of 

 gynajceum. 



Spcerostjjlis owes its name to its ovary, surmounted by a ball- 

 shaped style, much larger than itself; it has a trimerous triandrous 

 male flower, similar to that of Tragia^ and five or six sepals in 

 the female flower. Only one species is known, a native of Mada- 

 gascar. In Astrococctis , consisting of trees from N. Brazil, the male 

 flower is tetramerous, isostemonous, and the style is much deve- 

 veloped, surmounting an ovary with a large obovoid mass or 

 reversed pyramid. Jngosfylcs, a tree from the same country, has also 

 an enormous style simulating a thick infuudibuliform corolla. The 

 stamens arc indefinite in number and have their short filaments united 



