292 
LAU RACEME. 
* TETRANTHERA, Jacq. 
Flow ers dioicous, several together in an umbel surrounded by an invo- 
lucre of 5-6 oblong-navicular bracts. Perianth with a funnel-shaped 
tube and 6 acute lobes. Stamens in the male flowers about a dozen ; 
anthers 4-celled. Ovary in the female flower surrounded by glandular 
staminodes. Fruit small, globose, girt at the base only by the plate-shaped 
relics of the perianth. — Shrubs or trees with alternate penninerved 
leaves, the umbels on short peduncles, solitary or fascicled in the axils 
of the leaves. Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics, mostly Asiatic. 
Species 80-90. 
Filaments 5-6 times as long as the anthers * T. laurifolia. 
Filaments not more thaiUtwice as long as the anthers . . * T. monopetala. 
* T. laurifolia , Jacq. Hort. Schoen. t. 113 ; Meissn. in DC. Prod. xv. 
178 ; T. apetala, Boxb. Cor. PI. t. 147, a common plant through 
Tropical Asia, is now subspontaneous in Mauritius, the Seychelles and 
Rodriguez. It is a tree 15-30 feet high, with petioled obovate-oblong 
obtuse leaves 3-6 in. long at first pilose beneath, short axillary pe- 
duncles bearing 1-4 small globose umbels surrounded by 5-6 
downy oblong concave deciduous bracts, perianth very minute 
densely pilose 6-cleft, stamens about 12 much exserted, fruit globose 
purple juicy the size of a large pea. Bois d'oiseaux. Bois Zozo. 
* T. monopetala , Roxb. Cor. PI. t. 148 ; Meissn. in DC, Prod. xv. 189 ; 
T. villosa, Bojer , Hort . Maur. 272, a native of the East Indies, is also 
subspontaneous in Mauritius. It has thinner leaves than T. laurifolia , 
pubescent beneath, with very distinct numerous parallel erecto-patent 
main veins, umbels densely fascicled in the axils of the leaves, a 
densely pilose perianth with 6 acute teeth, stamens 12-14 of which 
3-5 are sterile, much less exserted than in T. laurifolia and a similar 
fruit seated on the truncate plate-shaped base of the perianth. 
2. CASSYTHA, Linn. 
Flowers hermaphrodite, without an involucre. Perianth with acara- 
panulate tube and 6 oblong imbricate erect lobes. Fertile stamens 9, 
inserted at the throat of the tube ; filaments short ; anthers 2-celled, 
oblong, opening by flaps ; staminodes 3. Ovary globose, included in 
the perianth-tube ; style cylindrical ; stigma capitate. Fruit globose, 
fleshy, included in the fleshy persistent perianth-tube. — Leafless para- 
sites, with the habit of Cuscuta. Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. 
Species 30. 
1. C. filiformis, Linn. ; Meissn. in DC. Prod. xv. 255. Perennial, 
