226 EUPHORBIACEAE 
placenta after the cocci walls fall. Flowering: June - 
Nov; fruiting: Nov - May. Fig. 74 
Distributed through Asia from India to New 
Guinea. In Australia, from northern NSW, through 
Mallotus 
Qld to the NT. A plant of vine thickets on a variety 
of soils. The glands on the fruit yield a rich 
orange-red dye known in India as Kamala dye 
[Macmillan, 1956]. 
MARGARITARIA Lf. 
Deciduous shrubs or small trees, dioecious. Glabrous. Branchlets densely lenticellate. Stipules persistent or 
deciduous. Petioles winged. Leaves alternate, distichous, lateral veins parallel, 7-13 per side, tertiary venation 
irregular. Bracts and bracteoles present. Inflorescence axillary, fasciculate, sessile. Male flowers: sometimes 
clustered, pedicellate; sepals 4, free; disk present; stamens 2-4; pistillode absent. Female flowers: sometimes 
clustered, pedicellate; perianth persistent; sepals free, green, membranous or fleshy; disk present; ovary ovoid. 
Fruit a capsule, green, + globular, seeds remaining on dissepiment after outer wall of capsule has fallen. Seeds 
ecarunculate, irridescent blue or blue-green, hemispherical, furrowed on the flat side. 
A genus of 14 tropical species of which 2 occur in Australia with both extending to the NT and the DR. 
[Webster, 1979; Airy Shaw, 1980a; J. Bruhl, pers comm.] 
1. Leaves thinly chartaceous or submembranous, acute, blackish-green when dry, 
margin finely undulate; ovary and fruit 3-locular, 8-11 mm diam., 
pedicel 10-15 mm long; rainforest .........cseeseeeeeeeees 
M. indica 
1. _ Leaves coriaceous, obtuse to emarginate, yellow-veined when dry, 
margin not undulate; ovary and fruit 2-locular, 5-6 mm diam., 
pedicel 4-8 mm long; open forest ......c.sesesseseeseseeees 
M. dubium-traceyi Airy Shaw & Hyland 
Shrub or slender tree to 5 m tall. Bark 
smooth and flakey. Stipules caducous, triangular, 
membranous, c. 2 mm long. Petioles 4-11 mm 
long. Leaf blades concolorous, elliptic to obovate, 
45-134 mm long, 22-75 mm wide, L/B 1.6-2.3, 
venation pale in dried specimens, apex obtuse, 
+ emarginate, minutely mucronate, margin 
entire, base attenuate. Fruit on pedicels 4-8 mm 
long; 5-6 mm diam., 2-locular. Seeds 4-5 mm diam. 
Flowering: Oct - Nov; fruiting: most months. 
Fig. 74 
Distributed eastward from Melville Is., around 
the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cape York. Grows 
in sandstone and coastal monsoon forest in the 
DR and Top End, but around the Gulf growing 
M. dubium-traceyi 
with Bulwaddy, Lancewood and Eucalypts. In the 
DR only known from Melville Is. 
M. indica (Dalzell) Airy Shaw 
Small tree 5-20 m tall. Bark in trees peeling in 
patches to give a cream and grey mottled appearance, 
blaze green with pale pink inner bark. Stipules 
persistent or deciduous, lanceolate to triangular, 
membranous to chartaceous, 1.7-5.6 mm long. 
Petioles 4.6-12.5 mm long. Leaf blades discolorous, 
elliptic, ovate or obovate, 11-115 mm long, 23-58 mm 
wide, apex acute, margin finely undulate, base attenu- 
ate. Fruit on pedicels 9-14 mm long; 7-9 mm diam., 
3-locular. Seeds c. 3 mm diam. Flowering: Nov - Dec; 
fruiting: Jan - Mar. Not illustrated. 
SE Asia, New Guinea, Qld and the NT. In the DR 
only known from Gunn Point in vine thicket. 
MICROCOCCA Benth. 
A genus of 12 species found in the Old World tropics. One introduced species occurs in the DR. 
*M. mercurialis (L.) Benth. 
An annual herb to 30 cm tall. Stems striate with 
lines of raised tissue and with the petioles, 
inflorescence, and veins on the undersurfaces of 
