EUPHORBIAGEJE. 115 



J. Manihot is become tlie type of a special genus under the nainu 

 of Manihot, because in its apetalous flowers, very similar on that 

 account to those of Cnidoscolus, the stamenal filaments, instead of 

 being borne upon a column surrounded by the disk, are free for the 

 greatest part of their length and are only united towards the base 

 by a central body which spreads out between them to form a sur- 

 based disk. The Manihots are herbaceous or frutescent, almost all 

 natives of S. America. 



Beside the preceding genera are placed : Tannodia, a shrub from 

 Madagascar, having the flowers of Jatropha, small or united in spike- 

 shaped cluster, the calyx however being valvate in the male flowers 

 and imbricated in the female ; 7hu7-nesolia (Fr., Maurelle), whose 

 flowers, smaller than those of Jatropha but really constructed like 

 them, are in both sexes provided with a valvate calyx, and have 

 entire or more or less deeply cut petals, or these may be wanting in 

 the female flowers. Almost all inhabit the warm regions, especially 

 those of America, where they appear under the form of herbs, 

 shrubs, or undershrubs, the organs generally impregnated with a 

 reddish colouring matter. Pausandra, of tropical America, has 

 from six to eight stamens, the exterior oppositipetalous, inserted 

 round the central concavity of the receptacle. 



Monotaxis forms close to them a small sub-series (^Monotaxidece), 

 where the flowers, with the same general plan as the preceding 

 genera, have a valvate calyx, distinct and pendanj; anther cells, and 

 an embryo cylindrical or nearly so, with cotyledons nearly 

 equal in size to the radicle, instead of being flattened, foliaceous, 

 and much larger. This consists of Australian plants of peculiar 

 habit, suflfrutescent, with small ramified stems and narrow leaves 

 recalling those of Ericacece. 



In SarcocUnium, consisting of shrubs from tropical Asia and 

 America, the flowers, very similar to those of Jatropha and 'Tour- 

 nesoUa, have a valvate male calyx and an imbricated female one, 

 petals the same or double in number to the sepals, two verticJs 

 (complete or incomplete) of introrse anthers, and flowers disposed in 

 small cymes on the axis of spikes or racemes, sometimes very long. 

 Galearia from Malaysia and Java, has nearly the same flowers, but 

 the calyx is valvate and the petals concave or formed like hoods in 

 which are lodged the anther cells of the alternipetalous stamens. 

 The ovary bi- or tri-looular becomes a coriaceous fruit, indehiscent 



