582 Prain .— A Review of the Genera 
which induced Mueller to endorse its suppression. Bentham separates 
Claoxylon and Micrococca , taken together, from the allied genus Erythrococca , 
because in both the stigmas are entire, whereas those of Erythrococca are 
plumosely multifid, and then distinguishes Micrococca from Claoxylon 
because the former is an annual monoecious herb with few stamens, while 
the latter is composed of dioecious shrubs with usually numerous stamens. 
Now this stigmatic character is ineffective ; the stigmas in Claoxylon , as 
Bentham has limited that genus, are not always entire; when Claoxylon is 
restricted to its natural limits the stigmas never are entire. The statement 
that the stigmas of Micrococca are entire is incorrect; they have been 
described by Hooker (Flor. Brit. Ind., v. 412) as ‘ fimbriate * ; they may, if 
we prefer the term, be described as ‘ plumosely multifid ’, because they are 
exactly like the stigmas in most of the species of Erythrococca and in every 
species of Claoxylon. 
Mueller and Bentham are therefore in agreement as regards the 
characters on which they rely in separating Micrococca from Claoxylon ; in 
both cases the only characters employed which are real are that Micrococca 
is an annual and is monoecious. In this respect they are at variance with 
Thwaites, who has not alluded to the first character, and as regards the 
second laboured under a misapprehension corresponding to the misappre¬ 
hension of Mueller as regards the nature of the stamens, and to that of 
Bentham as regards the stigmas. The difference between Bentham and 
Mueller resolves itself into one of opinion ; Mueller believed the two valid 
characters to be only of sectional value, Bentham considered that they 
justified the maintenance of Micrococca as a distinct genus. 
Matters remained in this impasse until, in 1887, Hooker threw an 
entirely new light on the character and composition of Micrococca (Flor. 
Brit. Ind., v. 412, 413), by pointing out that this section or genus, so far from 
being monotypic, includes a number of species that are frutescent and 
dioecious. Besides transferring C. oligandrum, Muell. arg., from Enclaoxylon 
to Micrococca , and thereby amply vindicating the action of Thwaites in 
having treated this plant and Micrococca Mercurialis as members of one 
genus, Hooker added to Micrococca three new forms, C. Wightii , C. 
Beddomei , and C. hirsutum , all natives of Southern India. Of these, 
C. hirsutum is now believed to be really only a distinct variety of C. 
Wightii ; the others are certainly well characterized and valid species which 
agree with each other, with C. oligandriim , and with Micrococca Mercurialis , 
and at the same time differ very markedly from every species of Claoxylon 
proper examined by Hooker, in the character afforded by the scales of their 
hypogynous disc on which Thwaites laid stress. All these species further 
differ, as Hooker has pointed out, from every true Claoxylon in having long, 
filiform, interrupted racemes. 1 
1 In Euclaoxylon and in Discoclaoxylon the racemes when young are substrobilate, when fully 
