308 
ETJPHOBBIACEiE. 
[. Securinega . 
2. S. obovata. Mull. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv. 2, 429. A mucli 
branched glabrous spineless shrub, with tetragonous branchlets. 
Leaves short-petioled, obovate, obtuse, membranous, 1-2 in. long. 
Flowers minute, in copious clusters in the axils of the leaves. Peri- 
anth green, in. long, deeply 5-cleft ; segments toothed. Female 
flowers fewer in a cluster, on very short pedicels. Male flowers in 
denser clusters, on filiform pedicels •§— in. long. Stamens 3-4 times 
as long as the perianth, surrounding a 2-3-celled rudimentary ovary. 
Capsule depresso-globose, the size of a pea, at first rather fleshy, finally 
dry and black. Fluggea comorensis and arborescens, Bojer , Hort. 
Maur. 278. 
Seychelles, common in poor soil in all the islands, Horne , 583 ! Mauritius, 
Telfair ! probably not a native. Spread through the tropics of the Old World. 
5. PHYLLANTHUS, Linn. 
Flowers monoicous or dioicous. Perianth calycine, 5-6-partite, the 
segments imbricate. Disk with glands which alternate with the perianth- 
segments. Male flowers without any rudimentary ovary. Stamens 3-5, 
the filaments connate or free. Ovary usually 3-celled ; ovules in pairs 
in the cells ; styles as many as the cells, usually bifid. Fruit a capsule 
with septicidal dehiscence. Seeds without either arillus or caruncle. 
— Herbs or shrubs ; leaves short-petioled, entire, usually alternate ; 
flowers minute, in the axils of the leaves, solitary or clustered. Dis- 
tblb. Cosmopolitan in the Tropics. Species 400-500. 
Annual or perennial herbs, with flowers 1-2 in the 
axils of most of the leaves. 
Leaves very narrow, 1-nerved 1. P. longifolius. 
Leaves broad, penninerved. 
Pedicels scarcely any. 
Annual ; sepals oblanceolate-oblong .... 2. P. Urinaria. 
Perennial ; sepals obovate 3. P. maderaspatensis. 
Pedicels as long as the perianth 4. P. Niruri. 
Pedicels much longer than the perianth .... 5. P. tenellus. 
Low shrub of heath-like habit with narrow 1-nerved 
leaves 6. P. dumetosus. 
Tall shrubs with broad penninerved leaves. 
Cells of ovary and styles 2 7. P. anomalus. 
Cells of ovary and styles 3. 
Flowers 1-4 together in the axils of the leaves . 8. P. casticum. 
Flowers in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves. 
Leaves alternate. 
Leaves ovate or round 9. P. phillyrejefolius. 
Leaves oblanceolate obtuse 10. P. lanceolatus. 
Leaves opposite 11. P. oppositifolius. 
Cells of ovary 4. Flowers in leafless racemes . . * P. distichus. 
1. P. longifolius, Lam. III. tab. 756, fig. 3. A glabrous annual 
or perennial herb, with densely caespitose ascending wiry branches \ 
foot long. Leaves alternate, nearly sessile, linear, 1-nerved, J-l in. 
long, membranous, glabrous, green above, glaucous beneath ; stipules 
