subulate teeth, green on the under side, rugose and beau- 
tifully variegated on the upper ; the wpper-hp three lobed, 
white tinged with purple.» From a flat receptacle in the 
centre of these petals grows the female flower, a single, 
obsoletely three-cornered germen, with a tripartite style, 
and lobular stigmas; at first erect, but speedily, as in most 
_ of the genus, cerhuous; the germen is surrounded by se- 
veral stamens, which rise in succession: anthers two- 
lobed : lobes divaricate. -The whole plant when wounded 
exudes a white milk, which is not acrid. 
The above description is given according to the Linnean 
notions of the parts composing the flowers of an Euphorbia ; 
but our friend Mr. Rosert Brown has given a much more 
satisfactory explanation of the organs constituting the 
flower ; which cannot be better described than in his own 
words, in the appendix to FiinpEr’s Voyage, page 556. 
“* The view I take (says this intelligent botanist) of the structure of 
EvuPHORBIA is in ove important particular, at least, different from those 
given by Lamarck, Ventenat, Richard, and Decandolle, though possibly the 
same as Jussieu has hinted at; so briefly, however, and, I may add, ob- 
scurely, that if his supposition be really analogous to what I shall presently 
offer, he has not been understood by those who profess to follow him im 
this respect. : : 
 ** With all the authors above quoted, I regard what Linneus has called 
Calyx and Corolla, in EupHorBIA, as an involucrum, containing several 
male flowers, which surround a single female. By some of these authors 
the male flowers are described as monandrous, and in this respect also, I 
agree with them; but the body, which all of them describe as a jointed 
filament, I consider to be made up of two very distinct parts, the portion 
below the joint being the footstalk of the flower, and that above it, the 
proper filament: but, as the articulation itself is entirely naked, it follows, 
that there is no perianthium; the filiform, or laciniated scales, which au- 
thors have considered as such, being on this supposition analagous to 
bractez: The female flower, in conformity with this supposition, has also 
its pedunculus on the dilated, and, in a few cases obscurely lobed; apex of 
which the sessile ovarium is placed. If this be a correct view of the struc- 
ture of Euphorbia, it may be expected that the true filament, or upper joint 
of what has commonly been called filament, should, as in other plants, be 
produced subsequent to the distinct formation of the anthera, which con- 
sequently will be found at first sessile on the lower joint or peduncle, after 
that has attained nearly its full length, and accordingly, this proves to be 
the case in such species as I have examined. Additional probability is given . 
to this view, by the difference existing between the surfaces of the two joints 
in some species. _ I consider it, however, as absolutely proved, by an un- 
published genus of this order, having an involucrum nearly similar to that 
of Euphorbia, and like it, enclosing several fasciculi of monandrous male 
flowers, surrounding a single female, but which, both at the joint of the 
supposed filament, and at that by which the ovarium is connected with its 
pedicellus, has an obvious perianthium regularly divided into lobes.” 
_ Native of the Cape of Good Hope. Requires to be kept 
in the greenhouse, or dry-stove. Propagated by cuttings. 
Flowers in September and October. 
Communicated by Messrs. Loppices and Sons. 
