150 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



gated, more or less united to a vertical column (fig. 252), or again 

 completely monadelplious, inserted on the edges of a connective more 

 or less triangular (fig. 249), and with a transverse direction, some- 

 times even confluent at the time of dehiscence in a sort of horizontal 

 ring (fig. 253). The numerous species of this genus are herbs, 

 shrubs, and even trees which grow in the warm and temperate 

 regions of the entire globe. Generally their leaves are alterni- 

 distichous, simulating, on the branch which bears them, the arrange- 

 ment of the folioles of a pinnate leaf. Sometimes they are reduced 

 to simple scales, and, in this case, the branches on which they are 



Phyllnntluis Niriiri. 



Fhyllaiithus Faijiieti. Phylluiitimn ojclaiithera. 



Fig. 251. Male flower (i). Fig. 252. Male flower (i). Fig. 253. Male flower (i). 



inserted are dilated into flattened cladodes ; this happens in the 

 species of the section Xylophylla (fig. 248). The Breynias, belong- 

 ing to the warm parts of Asia and Oceania, have the vegetative organs 

 of the foliaceous species of Phjllantlim. They are distinguished by 

 flowers with obconical male perianth, the divisions being appendicii- 

 late-folded on the back and infracto-connivent. The seeds are 

 provided with a partial or generalized aril. Sauropus., from the 

 same countries, has a turbinate depressed male calyx, with an adnate 

 disk, 6-lobed, the glands superposed to the sepals, instead of being 

 alternate as in Phyllanthiis.^ of which Saurojjus has otherwise the 

 general organization and mode of vegetation. Jgyneia, also closely 

 allied, has the glands situated like those of Saurojjus, the disk in 

 the male flower being long adnate inwardly, free and lobed out- 

 wardly ; the contrary to what is observed in Sauropus. The only 

 known Jgyneia, a herb in all points very analogous to PliyUantJms in 

 foliage and. inflorescence, inhabits the tropical regions of the old 

 world. 



