Sauropus
(from sauros, a lizard, and pous, a foot; Blume, the originator of the genus, does not say why it is so named). SYN. Ceratogynum. ORD. Euphorbiaceae. A genus comprising about fourteen species of stove shrubs, with the habit of Phyllanthus, natives of the East Indies, the Malayan Archipelago (and New Caledonia?). Flowers fascicled in the axils, all pedicellate, the males minute, the females in the same or in a distinct axil, solitary or rarely two. Leaves alternate, distichous, membranous, entire. For culture of S. albicans Gardnerianus, the only species introduced, see Phyllanthus. S. albicans Gardnerianus (whitish, Gardner's) l. oblong-ovate, scarcely rounded-obtuse or sub-obtuse at base, acute and acuminate at apex, small, deep green, with a greyish central blotch. Branches and branchlets slender, green, the latter angular. Ceylon, 1861.