Acalyplia.'] 
EUPHORBIACEJ. 
315 
long. Styles deeply laciniated. A. spicata, Linn. A. ciliata and 
canescens, TTall. 
Seychelles and Mauritius, a common weed. Spread through the tropics of the 
Old World. 
2. A. Poiretii, Spreng. ; Mull. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv. 2, 880. An 
erect annual, 1-3 feet high, with stems clothed with spreading bristly 
hairs. Leaves middle-sized, membranous, ovate, deeply crenate, entire 
at the base ; petiole bristly, as long as or longer than the blade. 
Female spikes short, sessile, oblong. Female flowers solitary in the 
clasping pilose deeply toothed foliaceous bracts. Capsules -Jj in. long, 
the valves splitting into two and rolling up. Styles simple. A. 
hispida, Willd. ; Bojer, Hort. Maur. 285. 
Mauritius, a frequent weed. Probably of American origin, but now widely- 
spread in the Old World. 
3. A. colorata, Spreng. Syst. in. 879. A shrub, 4 or 6 feet high, 
with glabrous branchlets. Leaves subcoriaceous, glabrous, oblong- 
panduriform, very variable in size, usually 3-6 inches Jong, 1-2 J 
inches broad at the middle, rounded at the base, obtuse or obtusely 
pointed, obscurely crenate or entire, green on the upper surface, 
concolorous or bright claret-purple beneath ; petiole usually in. 
long, rarely longer. Male flowers in dense clusters on copious sessile 
or nearly sessile axillary spikes 2-4 in. long. Female flowers few, 
usually in sessile clusters of 2-4 in the axils of the leaves, subtended 
by a round coriaceous entire bract inch broad. Ovary pilose, 
prickly ; styles deeply laciniated. Seeds smooth. A. discolor, 
marginata, and integrifolia, Bojer , Port. Maur. 286. A. Commerso- 
niana, Baill. ; Mull. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv. 2, 849. 
Mauritius, common through the island in woods and thickets. A very variable 
plant. A. discolor , Bojer, is a common form with the leaves bright purple beneath ; 
A . marginata , Bojer, not Spreng., with the leaves purple beneath except a green edge ; 
A. integrifolia , Willd., a form with entire leaves. Var. parvifolia , Mull. Arg. (Sieber 
369), is a striking variety of dwarf habit with oblong leaves not more than £-1 
inch long. Also Madagascar, Comoros, and perhaps Timor. 
4. A. marginata, Spreng . ; Mull. Arg. in DC. Prod. xv. 2, 850, not 
Bojer. A shrub, with finely pubescent tetragonous branchlets. Leaves 
membranous, oblong, shallowly dentate, deltoid at the apex and base, 
4-8 in. long, atfirst finely pubescent beneath, but nearly or quite glabrous 
when mature; petiole \-2 in. long, pubescent. Male spikes 2-4 in. 
long, sessile in the axils of the leaves ; bracts deltoid, densely pilose. 
Female flowers few, in small clusters, sessile in the axils of the leaves, 
subtended by a minute obovate coriaceous entire bract. Ovary 
prickly ; styles deeply laciniated. A. tomentosa, Bojer , Hort. Maur. 
285. 
Mauritius, on the mountains of Nouvelle Decouverte. Also Bourbon. Hois 
queue de Rats. 
