150 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



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

 completely monadelphous, inserted on tlie edges of a connective more 

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

 times even confluent at tlie 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 



Phyllanthus Nirwri. Fhyllanthm Fagtteti, Fhyllantmis cyclanthera. 



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



inserted are dilated into flattened oladodes ; 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 Phyllanthus. They are distinguished by 

 flowers with obconical male perianth, the divisions being appendicu- 

 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 Phyllanthus, of which Sauropus has otherwise the 

 general organization and mode of vegetation. Agyneia, also closely 

 allied, has the glands situated like those of Sauropus, 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 Agyneia, a herb in all points very analogous to Phyllanthus in 

 foliage and inflorescence, inhabits the tropical regions of the old 

 world. 



