276 EUPHOHCIACE.E (Brown). \_Ei'phorUa. 



I 



Of this species I have been able to examine only one involucre, which is past 

 the flowering stage and has its glands ascending, but probably when alive and in 

 full flower they would be spreading and so the diameter of the involucre would be 

 larger than above stated. Its mode of branching at the inflorescence and cuneate 

 involucre-lobes well distinguish it from most of its allies. 



45. E. Rudolfii (N. E. Br.) ; a leafless canci spineless unisexual 

 busli, apparently succulent or with a succulent bark, probably 1 5:t. 

 or more high, with the main branches repeatedly forking at the 

 top into large lax cymes 3-8 in, across ; in the specimens seen 

 the pieces are 9-12 in. high, with the main stems li-2A lin. thick, 

 and the slender branches i-| lin, thick, terete, glabrous, not papil- 

 late nor asperate, with internodes mostly l-2i- in. long, the ultimate 

 shorter; leaves and bracts rudimentary, opposite, scale like, vr lin- 

 long, sessile^ deltoid, acute, spreading, blackish or dark brown ; 

 male involucres solitary or 3 together in a sessile cyme at the^tips 

 of the ultimate branchlets, campanulate, \\ lin. or less in diam. 

 and 1 lin. deep, very minutely puberulous outside on the lower 

 part, distinctly puberulous within, with 5 glands and 5 rather 

 linear-oblong ciliate lobes ; female plant not seen. 



Western' Regiox: Van Rlivnsdorp Div. ; on hills near Bitterfontein, 1300 ft., 

 Schlcchter, 11017 ! between Litterfontein and Stinkfuntein, Pearson, 5533 ! 



46. E. muricata (Thunb. Prodr. 86 and FL Cap. ed. Schult. 405) ; 



a much-branched leafless and spineless succulent shrub, 1^-^ rt. 

 higli ; only upper portions of three main brandies or stems bearing 

 a few lateral branches seen ; branches more or less constricted or 

 jointed at their origin, opposite or sometimes alternate (except at 

 the inflorescence) from only one branch at each node being deve- 

 loped, diverging from the stem from which they arise at an aUj-,— 

 of 20^-35'', terete or (when dried) sometimes very distinctly 

 6-angledj with concave sides between the angles, scabrous, especi- 

 ally on the older parts, with very small crowded laterally com- 

 pressed tubercles or crenations, glabrous ; leaves rudimentary and 

 scale-like, opposite, sessile, about | lin. long, ovate or deltoid-ovate, 

 acute or obtuse, recurved and concave-channelled at the apical part, 

 dark brown, soon deciduous; cymes terminal, J-U in. in diam., 

 consisting of 2 opposite diverging branchlets |~1 in. long, each 

 forking once or twice into shorter branchlets bearing 3 involucres, 

 bub flowers are wanting on the specimens and are not described by 

 Thunberg; bracts scale-like, sessile, |— .\ lin. long, very broadly 

 ovate, acute to very obtuse, dark brown. ^ 



Coast Region : Van Ehynsdorp Div. ; on hills at Atties, Pearson, 5459 . 

 Clan William Div. ; between the Olifants River and Boeklandj ThutiUr(j I 



Eolssier has eiToneou^ly considered this to be identical with two other specieB 

 which he associated with it under K hraduata, E. Meyer, and states that the 

 scabrous epidermis is only due to shrinkage in th^ing. This, however, is not tne 

 case, for the thin laterally compressed and somewhat minute tubercles are 

 evidently structural, and neither they nor the angles and grooves present on the 

 stem and branches of E. muricata are to be found upon any dried specimens o 



