Download EUPHORBIACEAE elliptic-ovate, acuminate, crenate

EUPHORBIACEAE
289
elliptic-ovate, acuminate, crenate-dentate, 8 to 15 cm long. Panicles in
the upper axils, many-flowered, shorter than the leaves. Flowers small,
greenish. Fruit fleshy, globose, brown or reddish, 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter.
Seeds brown, oblong, 5 mm long.
Cementerio del Norte, Malate, etc., immature specimens; widely dis­
tributed in the Philippines. India, through Malaya to Polynesia.
10. JATROPHA LinnaeusHerbs or shrubs, often glandular. Leaves alternate, entire, angled, or
digitately lobed. Flowers monoecious, in terminal cymes, the central flowers
of the cyme usually female. Male flowers with 5 imbricate sepals and 5
free or connate petals. Stamens usually 8 or 10, sometimes more; filaments
all connate, or outer ones free. Female flowers with calyx as in the males,
the petals often absent. Carpels connate in a 2- to 4-celled ovary; ovules
solitary; styles connate below, 2-fid above. Fruit a dehiscent capsule of
two to four 2-valved cocci. Seed ovoid or oblong, albumen fleshy. (Greek
"physician" and "food," from medicinal qualities.)
Species about 160 in the tropics of both hemispheres, chiefly in Africa and
America, 4 introduced in the Philippines.
1. Leaves peltate; stems much swollen and thickened at the base.
1. J. podagrica
1. Leaves not peltate.
2. Leaves palmately divided into about 10 lanceolate lobes.. 2. J. multifida
2. Leaves 3 - to 5-lobed or angled, or subentire.
3. Plant glabrous
_
3. / . curcas
3. Plant with numerous capitate-glandular hairs
4. / . gossypifolia
*1.
J . PODAGRICA Hook.
Stems erect, simple or sparingly branched, much thickened and fleshy
below, 0.5 to 1.5 m high, the petiole-scars large, the stipules dissected,
glandular. Leaves peltate, orbicular-ovate, 10 to 25 cm long, 3- to 5-lobed,
base truncate or rounded, the lower surface glaucous, the petioles as long
as the leaves. Cymes terminal, long-peduncled, the branches short, thick,
the branchlets and flowers red. Sepals about 2 mm long, connate to about
the middle. Petals about 7 mm long, oblong-obovate. Capsules ellipsoid,
1.3 to 1.8 cm long.
Rarely cultivated and of very recent introduction, fl. all the year. A
native of Central America.
*2. J . MULTIFIDA L. Mana (Sp.-Fil.).
A glabrous shrub 2 to 3 m high, the petioles about as long as the
leaves. Leaves glaucous beneath, 15 to 30 cm in diameter, cleft nearly
to the base into about 10 lanceolate, acuminate, entire or pinnately incised
lobes, the lobes 1 to 4 cm wide; stipules 1 to 2 cm long, setaceous-dissected.
Cymes long-peduncled, 3 to 6 cm broad. Flowers red, 5 to 6 mm long.
Capsule obovoid somewhat 3-angled, the angles rounded, about 2 cm long.
(Fl. Filip. pi. 3i2.)
Occasionally cultivated, fl. most of the year. A native of tropical
America, introduced here at an early date, but not spontaneous.
3. J. CURCAS L. Tuba ( T a g . ) ; Physic Nut.
A glabrous, erect, branched shrub 2 to 5 m high. Branches stout,
cylindric, green. Leaves orbicular-ovate, angular or somewhat 3- or 5-lobed,
111655
19