1892 CXVI. BALANOPHOREiB. 



1. BALANOPHORA, Forst. 

 (Bearing acorn-like heads. 

 Male perianth regular, usually of 3 or 4 but varying from 2 to 8 segments. 

 Stamens all united; anthers 4-celIed. Female flowers consisting of _ a naked 

 ovary, terminating in a single style. Scapes bearing alternate or imbricate- 

 scales and a dicecious or monoecious spike ; when monceoious, the males occupying: 

 the lower, and the females the upper portion. 



The geniis comprises few species, natives of E. India, the Archipelago, and the S. Pacific- 

 islands ; the Australian one is found also in the New Hebrides. 



1. B. fungosa (Fungus-Uke), Forst. Char. Gen. 99, t. 50 ; Benth. Fl. Amir. 

 vi. 232. Khizome short, thick, irregularly lobed, with a minutely granular- 

 surface. Scapes thick, 2 to 4in. high. Scale-like leaves ovate, obtuse, concave, 

 membranous, -Jj to fin. long. Female flowers exceedingly numerous and minute,, 

 very densely packed in a globular terminal head of various colours, from 1 to 2in. 

 diameter, the males occupying a loose ring under it, 8 or 4 lines broad, each one 

 on a pedicel of 1^ to 2 lines. Perianth-lobes 8 or 4, spreading or reflexed,. 

 oblong, concave, about 1 line long. Anthers forming a globular mass, on a short- 

 stipes consisting of the united filaments. — Hook. f. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 46, 

 t. 8 ; Cyncmoriuni halanophora, Willd. Spec. PI. iv. ]77. 



Hab.: Eocldngham Bay, common on roots of trees in tropical scrubs, Dallachy; Gould! 

 Island in the same bay, M'GiUivray; abundant at Maolray ; common. 



Order CXYII. EUPHORBIACE^. 



Flowers always unisexual. Perianth either simple and calyx-like or almost 

 petal-like, usually small, or double with 4 or 5 petals alternating with the calyx- 

 lobes, or sometimes entirely wanting in one or both sexes. Stamens various. 

 Ovary superior, consisting of 8 or sometimes 2, or more than 3, united or 1- 

 celled, or rarely 2-celIed carpels, very rarely reduced to a single one. Styles as. 

 may as carpels, free or more or less united, entire or divided, the stigmatic sur- 

 face usually lining their inner face. Ovules 1 or 2 in each carpel, pendulous 

 from the inner angle of the cells, the funicle usually thickened into a cellular- 

 mass often termed an obturator. Fruit either capsular, separating into as many 

 2-valved cocci as carpels, leaving a persistent axis, or more rarely succulent and 

 - indehiscent with the endocarp consisting of as many indehiscent nuts or cocci as 

 carpels or cells. Seed laterally attached at or above the middle, with or without 

 an arillus or caruncle. Embryo straight, with fiat cotyledons and a superior 

 radicle, in a fleshy albumen, or very rarely the cotyledons fleshy, with little or no- 

 albumen. — Trees shrubs or herbs, often abounding in milky juice, exceedingly 

 various in habit. Leaves alternate or opposite, rarely divided or compound, 

 usually with stipules. Inflorescence very varied. Flowers usually small. 



A very large Order, most abundant within the tropics, both in the New and the Old World, 

 gralually diminishing in numbers in more temperate regions, and very few ascending into 

 alpine or cold climates. 



_ TniBE I. Eviplxor'biese.— Involucre calyx-like, including several male-Aowers, each of a 

 siiifile stamen without any iierlanth, and one central female one, a single pedicellate pistil witfwut 

 any or rarelij with a perianth, the lohole flower-head resembling a single-flower. Embryo with 

 broad cotyledons and a narrow radicle. Raphe of ovule ventral. 



Trees, shrubs or herbs with a milky juice 1. EnPHOREi.i. 



Teibe ir. Stenolobeee, — Flowers distinct, both sexes with a perianth. Embryo linear,, 

 the cotyledons not at all or scarcely broader than the radicle. Shrubs often heath-like, with 

 entire coriaceous leaves or rarely herbs with small membranous leaves. 

 Ovules 2 in each cell. 

 Anther-cells opening in terminal pores. Styles 2-fid. Capsule depressed 

 globular. Flowers white, in head-like racemes forming terminal 

 corymbs 2. Pokantheka. 



