EUPHORBIACEAE 285 



Very common in thickets, hedges, etc., fl. all the year; widely distributed 

 in the Philippines. Tropical Africa, Asia, and Malaya. 



2. P. URINARIA L. 



An erect, branched, slender, glabrous or nearly glabrous herb 10 to 40 

 cm high, the branches angled. Leaves distichous, imbricate, alternate, 

 pale beneath, sessile, elliptic-oblong to oblong, thin, 5 to 10 mm long, ob- 

 tuse or apiculate, base slightly oblique; stipules lanceolate. Flowers very 

 small, 5-merous, axillary, about 1 mm in diameter, sessile or very shortly 

 pedicelled. Sepals greenish. Stamens 3; filaments united below; anthers 

 erect, the slits vertical. Capsules about 2 mm in diameter, muricate or 

 smooth, of 3 dehiscent cocci. 



In waste places, occasional, fl. all the year; widely distributed in the 

 Philippines, probably introduced. Tropics generally. 



3. P. NIRURI L. 



An erect, slender, branched, glabrous herb, 10 to 60 cm high, the branch- 

 lets distichous. Leaves distichous, often imbricate, oblong to elliptic- 

 oblong, obtuse or rounded, very shortly petloled, rather pale beneath, 5 

 to 8 mm long, the stipules small, subulate. Flowers axillary, shortly pedi- 

 celled, whitish or pale-green, about 0.5 mm long, the sepals 5, oblrong, 

 green, margined with white, the pedicels distinct, 1 to 2 mm long. Anthers 



3, opening by transverse slits. Capsules depressed-globose or globose, 

 smooth, 1.5 to 2 mm in diameter. 



In waste places, roadsides, etc., occasional, fl. all the year; widely distrib- 

 uted in the Philippines, probably introduced. Tropics generally. 



4. P. simplex Retz. 



A slender, erect, simple or slightly branched, glabrous, annual herb 20 

 to 50 cm high, the stems compressed, usually purplish. Leaves two- 

 ranked, subsessile or shortly petioled, oblong-linear, acute, or obtuse, 1.6 

 to 3 cm long, 6 to 9 mm wide, the stipules small, acuminate. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary, the males very small, on short pedicels, the females with 

 pedicels 8 mm long or less. Capsules depressed-globose, 3 to 3.5 mm in 

 diameter, smooth. 



In open grass lands, scattered, fl. all the year; throughout the Philip- 

 pines in the cultivated areas, possibly introduced. India to China, Malaya, 

 and Polynesia. 



4. GLOCHIDION Forster 



Erect shrubs or trees, glabrous or hairy, monoecious or dioecious. Leaves 

 alternate, 2-ranlfed, entire. Flowers small, in axillary clusters, apetalous, 

 without disk-glands or scales. Male flowers: Sepals 6, rarely 5, imbricate 

 in 2 series. Anthers 3 to 8, connate in an oblong column. Rudimentary 

 ovary none. Female flowers: Calyx about as in the males, sometimes 

 toothed. Ovary 3- to many-celled; styles connate in a column which is 

 toothed or lobed at the tip; ovules 2f in each cell. Capsule globose or 

 depressed-globose, dry or fleshy, of 3 to many 2-valved cocci, which are 

 longitudinally lobed or ridged. (Greek "an angular end," from the' style- 

 characters.) 



Species about 175, tropical Asia to Polynesia and Australia, 29 in the 

 Philippines. 



