Synoptical and Specific Descriptions. 
4-celled); ovary rudimentary or absent. Female flower— stamens absent; ovary usually 2-3 celled; styles same number as the cells, often bifid or plumose; ovules 1 in each 
cell, or 2, collateral, pendulous. Fruit usually 3-coccous, but occasionally 1-6 coccous in accordance with species, generally dehiscent by each cell splitting into 2 halves, leaving 
a more or less pronounced central column, but occasionally indehiscent. Seeds albuminous. Habit very diverse, including trees, shrubs, climbers and herbs, the former either 
foliaceous— ligneous or leafless— succulent, the latter annual or perennial. Juice almost always acrid, often milky. Leaves usually alternate or whorled, sometimes deciduous, 
often absent from the older plants of succulent species. Stipules herbaceous, spinous or absent. A very large and widely diffused family, much better represented, so far as 
ligneous species are concerned, in Eastern Cape Colony and Natal than in this Province. 
The plants included in Euphorbiacea; are almost all dangerous to eat, the acrid poisonous principle being generally present, though there are several notable instances 
of food prepared from poisonous plants by special treatment, especially Cassiva bread and Tapioca, and in a few cases the fruits are edible raw. Many medicines arc yielded, the 
best-known of which are Castor-oil, Croton-oil, and the tonic Cascarilla bark, while the juice of several kinds is used in domestic treatment as caustic. The African Oak or 
African Teak exported for shipbuilding from West Africa is Oldfieldia Africana, Benth. ; Boxwood is yielded by species of Buxus; several other Euphorbiaccous trees yield 
valuable timber; several yield dyes; India-rubber is prepared mainly from trees of this Family, resins used for varnishes are obtained from others, and the Emblic Myrobalans 
used in tanning are the fruit of a Phyllanthus. In horticulture, Euphorbiacete takes a prominent place, such genera as Croton, Poinsett ia, Euphorbia, Acalypha, Jatropha, 
Phyllanthus, Ricinus, &c., being used in tropical gardens, and in warm greenhouses elsewhere, the dwarf English Box is a well-known garden edging, while Rhabidophyllum 
Aithymaloides is the upright and often nearly leafless hedge plant common at Lourenzo Marques and known as 4, Mashopa; 6, Shilumwaan. 
210. BARRETTIA. (New genus.) 1 Founded on a very large tree growing in the district of Quelimane, of which I have not seen flowers or fresh fruits, but the characters 
in hand indicate a new genus probably belonging to Euphorbiacete. Leaves alternate, large, digitate, petioled, conspicuously stipulate. Fruit leathery, indehiscent, 
widely oblong, 2-seeded, each seed in a rough hard bony stone, the flatter faces meeting. 
B, umbrosa. (New species.) 1 Vern. names— 10, Moraba, Togarogoma, and Muroni. Evergreen tree 20 to 30 metres high, with stem up to 1 metre diameter, forming 
heavy canopy ; the foliage resembling that of the Horse-chestnut (yEsculus) in appearance, while the broken stems have the same smell as the Elder (Sambucus). 
Leaf digitate, of about 7 leaflets ; petiole 22-36 c.m. long, terete, having 2 glands on the upper surface below the middle, and with deeply-toothed deciduous 
stipules, up to 4 c.m. long and 2 c.m. wide. Leaflets almost sessile, 12-30 c.m. long, 5-10 c.m. wide, widely lanceolate, tapering gradually from the middle both 
ways, and crenate from vein to vein. Primary venation pinnate but not opposite; secondary more or less parallel from vein to vein. Fruit about 2 c m. deep, 2 5 
c.m. wide, and 2 c.m. diameter. Seeds 1*5 cm. long and wide, 1 c.m. diameter. Flowers not seen, but described by local residents as small, grey, and 
inconspicuous. Inflorescence not seen. Sim 6394. A grand shade tree, named after Mr. O. W. Barrett, Director of Agriculture, Province of Mozambique, who 
has assisted much in this endeavour to develop the forestal resources of the Province. 
Plate LXXI. Tree, general aspect (much reduced) ; 2, Leaf and stipules ; 3, Fruit ; 4, Section of fruit ; 5, One seed ; 6, Section of same. 
21 1. EXCCECARIA. Monoecious ; the flowers in axillary on terminal spikes or racemes ; 1-5 in each bract, the lower flowers on the spike pistillate, the upper staminate. 
Male flowers — Calyx minute ; stamens 2-3 ; anthers ovoid, dehiscing longitudinally ; filaments free or connate at the base ; ovary rudimentary or absent. Female 
flowers— Calyx 3-4 fid ; ovary 3-celled, ovules 1 in each cell ; styles 3, almost free, simple. Capsule 3-eelled, 3-seeded, the cells dehiscing by 2 twisting valves and 
leaving a central column, or in some species almost indehiscent. Seeds round, hard, albuminous. Trees or shrubs, with alternate, or sometimes congested, 
glabrous, stipuled leaves. 
E. reticulata, Mull. Arg. Vern. names — 4, Shlesha or Inhleha ; 13, Um-Vuma or um-Halampunzi. A deciduous or semi-deciduous monoecious tree ; leaves lanceolate 
or ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 c.m. long, 2'5-q c.m. wide, pointed, minutely toothed, glabrous, tapering to the base, and having a petiole 10-12 m.m. long. Venation 
pinnate, not prominent. Stipules oblong- obtuse, 3 m.m. long, deciduous. Inflorescence racemose, the lower 2 or 3 bracts having solitary female flowers ; the 
others 4-5 male flowers in each bract, all on short pedicels. Calyx 3-4 fid, cup-shaped, 2 lobes rather larger than the others. Male flower— stamens 3, free, slightly 
exserted ; ovary absent. Female flower — stamens absent ; ovary glabrous, 3-celled ; styles 3, long, slightly connate at the base, undivided. Capsule 3-celled, 
1 BARRETTIA. (Gen. nov.) Arbor maxima ; foliis alternis, digitalis, petiolatis, stipulatis ; fructibus coriaceis, indehiscentibus, lato-ohlongis ; seminibus 2 endocarpiis inclusis. 
- BarrcLtia umbrosa. (Sp. nov.) Arbor sempervirens, 20-30 m. alia, umbrosa ; cauli 1 m. diam. foliis iis VEsculi Hippocastani similibus, digitalis, petiolis 22-36 c.m. longis, teretibus ; slipulis deciduis 
dentatis, 4 c.m. longis, 2 c.m. latis ; pinnis sub-sessilibus, 12-30 c.m. longis, 5-10 c.m. latis, lato-lanceolatis, crenatis; fructibus 2 c.m. longis, 2 5 c.m. latis ; seminibus l - 5 c.m. longis ct latis, 1 c.m. diam. ; 
floribus haud visis. Tab. LXXI. 
