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222 EUPHORBIACE-E (Brown). [El^oijliorlia. 



When not in fniit this genus can scarcely be distinguished from Et'plm'hla, the 

 ovary, however, has thicker and more fleshy walls than are found in Eupliorhiu. 

 Although in Eiipkoj-bia ingens, E. Meyer, and one or t^vo others, the outer layer 

 of the fruit is more or less fleshy, yet the endocarp always separates into its 3 

 component cells and is never consolidated into a "stone" as in Eheophm'bia, 



1. B. acuta (N. E. Br.) ; habit unknown, probal)ly a tree^ succu- 

 lent, only a strip from an angle of a branch, which seems not to be 

 toothed, with flowers and fruit seen; spine-shields separate, about 

 2 lin. long and 1| lin. broad, apparently rather soft, bearing a pair 

 of diverging spines ^— | lin. long, light brown ; peduncles about 

 1^ lin. long, arising from the axils of the leaf-scars, glabrous, 

 bearing a cyme of 3 (or more?) involucres at the apex ; bracts 1-2 

 lin. long, very broadly rounded or acute at the apex, deeply concave, 

 thin ; involucre | in. or probably rather more in diam., 1)^ lin. deep, 

 rather sballowly and broadly cup-shaped, glabrous outside, with 

 5 glands and 5 very broad transversely oblong finely toothed lobes ; 

 glands contiguous, spreading, 1^-1 f lin, in their greater diam,, 

 somewhat half-circular, with the ends deflexed and the inner margin 

 straight and the outer broadly rounded, in the dried sj)eciuien both 

 margins are turned upwards ; ovary and styles not seen ; fruit 

 |-1 in. long, ellipsoid J tapering into an acute conical beak at the 

 apex and into a stout stalk at the base, glabrous, with a fleshy outer 

 layer enclosing a bony 3-celled stone or endocarp, the latter marked 

 with a slif^ht furrow down each of the 3 obtuse anodes and with a 

 small hole or deep pit on each side near the apex, 



SOCTH Africa : probiibly from the Transvaal, Burtt-Davy I 



Although the material is so scanty, it is sufficient to show the alliance of the 

 plant \vith E. drupiftra^ Stapf, from the west coast of Africa, from which it 

 diiitinctly ditlers in its smaller and beaked fruit ; in E. drupifera tliere is scarcely 

 any beak. It was sent to Kew without any information as to locality. 



III. EUPHORBIA, Linn. 



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flowers, each consisting of a single stamen jointed to a pedicel and 

 soon falling away from it, without or rarely with a minute calyx 

 just above the articulation) mingled with membranous or woolly 

 scales or bracteoles, with or without a stalked or sessile ovary 

 (really a pedicellate or sessile female flower, with or without a 

 minute 3-lobed or very rarely cup-like or tubular calyx at the base 

 of the ovary, but without a membranous tubular involucel sur- 

 rounding the pedicel) in their midst, contained in a calyx-like cup- 

 shaped involucre, the whole resembling a small hermaphrodite or 

 male flower. Involucre a cup with an outer series of 2-8 (usually 

 4-5) glands, distinct and equally spaced or very rarely united, 



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