OmphaUa.] CXVII. EUPHOEBUCE.B. 1466 



anthers ; cells vertical, extrorsely rimose ; ovary rudimentary or none. Flowers 

 (female) : Segments of the males ; ovary 2 to 8-locular, cells 1-ovulate ; style 

 columnar, obtuse or very shortly 2 or 3-lobed. Fruit thick, 2 or 3-dymus, 

 epioarp fleshy, endocarp hard, indehisoent, or at length bursting into 2-valved 

 cocci. Seed subglobose, estrophiolate, with a thick fleshy albumen ; cotyledons 

 broad, plain. Tall climbing shrubs, rarely trees. Leaves alternate, bearing 2 

 glands at the top of the petiole, often, large entire, penniveined, and with 8 or 5 

 nerves starting from the base. Flowers cymulose in simple or ramified racemes, 

 the central female ; bracts often linear-spathulate, 2-glandular. 

 Species chiefly South American , 



1. 0> queenslandiae (of Queensland), Bail, 3nl Sttppl. Syn. Ql. Flora. A 

 rampant climbing plant, extending 100ft. or more ; stems terete, or with more or 

 less prominent decurrent lines from the base of the petioles ; central pith 

 abundant. Leaves alternate, broadly ovate or oblong, obtusely acuminate, broad 

 almost truncate at the base, entire, 5 to 6in. long, 8 to 4in. broad at the base or 

 sometimes twice that size, glabrous and deep-green ; petioles 1 to 2in. long with 

 2 sessile rather large glands at the top ; nerves 5 to 7 on each side of the midrib, 

 the lowest pair starting from the top of the petiole, the smaller reticulations fine, 

 but prominent in the dried leaf. Inflorescence slightly ferruginously pubescent, 

 in pedunculate cymes in the upper axils of lateral shoots, somewhat trichotom- 

 ously branched, about 2in. long and broad. No male flowers found in the 

 inflorescence examined. Female perianth of 5 imbricate hairy lobes, IJ line 

 long, the flowers very variable as to size and length of pedicels, some quite 

 sessile ; style very short with 3 spreading stigmatic branches. Fruit large, 

 globular, yellow or nearly white, 3 to Sin. diameter, 2 to 3 or in some 4-celled ; 

 exocarp thick, fleshy, ultimately separating into as many cocci, with a thin hard 

 endocarp containing a solitary globular seed. The flowers may probably some- 

 times have 4 stigmatic lobes. 



Hab.: Johnstone Eiver, Harvey's Creelc. 



A species, 0. Oleifera, Hemsley, at Salvador, Sonsonate, is called by. the natives " Tambor," 

 aud Dr. Dorat says that it yields a large quantity of a very fine oil, pleasant to tbe taste, and 

 resembling castor oil in its purgative qualities, with the advantage that its action is painless. 

 Bio. Cent.— Ame. (Botany) iii. 134. 



Dr. Lindley, Veg. King. p. 279, says that the juice of a Guayana spaoies, 0. triandra, turns 

 black in drying, and is there used in the place of ink. I notice that the coagulated sap of our 

 native plant often forms small black lumps on the branches. 



41. SEBASTIANIA, Spreng. 



(After a botanist of the name of Sebastini.) 



(Gymnanthes, Sic. ; Microstachys, A. Jusi. ; Elaohocroton, F. v. M.) 



Flowers monoecious, in terminal or leaf-opposed racemes or spikes. Male 



flower : Perianth small, variously divided into 2 or 3 lobes or segments imbricate 



in the bud or open. No petals or glands. Stamens 2 or 3, inserted on a central 



receptacle without any rudimentary ovary ; filaments free ; anther-cells distinct, 



divaricate or placed back to back, opening longitudinally in 2 valves. Female 



perianth of 8 segments. Ovary 3-celled with one ovule in each cell. Styles 3, 



linear, undivided, free or very shortly connate at the base. Capsule separating 



in 2-valved cocci, leaving a central persistent axis. Seeds ovoid or oblong, 



carunculate. — Shrubs trees or (in the Australian species) annual or suffrutescent 



herbs. Leaves alternate, often minutely serrulate. Male flowers 2 or 3 together 



m clusters occupying the greater part or the whole of the raceme, females usually 



solitary or few at the base of the spike. 



The genus is rather a large one in America, with a single species spread over tropical Asia 

 and Africa, which Is also the ouly Australian one. 



