290 EUPHORBTACE.E (Browii). [Etfj^horUct. ' 



fragments without Rowers, but witli two leaves present, most of the specirnen 

 having been broken off and lost, for it is evidently a very brittle jilant when dried, 

 easily disarticulating at the nodes. Therefore, until rediscovered, it is impossible 

 to give a better descriptiou. The position Boissier assigns to it between J?, hamataj 

 Sweet, and E. cluvar hides, Boiss., is very misleading, as it certainly has no 

 similarity to either of those species. Its real affinity is with E. karroensis, 

 N. E. Br., E, siJimta, E. Meyer, and E, (jentilu^ N. E. Br., being evidently very 

 similar to the latter in size and appearance, but the leaves are quite different. 

 ]n my opinion there is nothing whatever about the plant that suggests the slightest 

 resemblance to any known Stapelia, 



66. E. karroensis (N. E. Br.)j a dwarf compactly mueli-branched 

 buslij succulent, spineless, dioecious, only male specimens seen ; 

 branches opposite, erect or suberect and more or less bunched 

 together, articulated at their origin and often at the nodes ; main 

 stems or branches 3 lin. and the flowering branches |— 1| lin. thick 

 when dried, drying dark brown, glabrous, with large stipular glands 

 at the nodes ; leaves opposite, rudimentary, deciduous, -§-J ^^^- h^ng, 

 spathulate, recurved at the tips, puberulous on the upper side of 

 the proportionately broad petiole, glabrous elsewhere ; bhide sub- 

 orbicular, obtuse, about i lin. in diam. ; cymes terminal, about -J- in. 

 in diam., consisting of a central subsessile involucre and 2 lateral 

 branches |-1 lin. long, each bearing 3 involucres ; bracts like the 

 leaves in size and form; involucres 1 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, 

 minutely puberulous, with 5 glands and 5 sube^uadrate fringe-toothed 

 lobes ; glands ^-f lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong 

 entire; rudimentary ovary pedicellate, glabrous. ^^ E. Bunnanm, 

 E. Jfe?/. ?" in Drege, Zicei PJl. Docnmente, 184, name only. E. Bur- 

 mnnni^ vnr, Jcarroensis, Boiss. in DC, Prodr. xv. ii. 75. Artliro- 

 tlfamnns Bnrmanm, Klotzsch d Garcke in Ahhandl Akad. Berlin, 

 ISGO, 62. 



Western Region : Van Rhynadorp Div. ; near Hoi liiver, Dre^je, 2947 ! 



aucl was 

 eonsideied by lioissier to be a variety of that species, but it is evidently a stouter 

 and more succulent plant, with shorter and more erect branches, a much less 

 compound inflorescence, and it dries dark brown instead of greyish-green. I have 

 not seen female invulucres, but as the rudimentary ovary in the male involucres is 

 glabrous, probably the perfect ovary and capsule are also glabrous. 



» 



This plant was distributed by Drege as '' E, Barvianni, E. Mey. ? " i 

 nsidered by Boissier to be a variety of that species, but it is evidently a 



67. E. spicata (E. Meyer in Drege, Zwei Pfl. Documente, 184, 

 ex Boiss, in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 97) ; dwarf, succulent, much branched 

 from the base, 2-6 in. high, leafless and spineless ; branches opposite 

 or sometimes solitary at a node, in the fragmentary specimens seen 

 1-4 in. long, 1-2 lin. thick, terete, subscabrous or harshly pube- 

 rulous with very short stifF spreading hairs or points ; leaves rudi- 

 mentary, soon deciduous, opposite or occasionally alternate, about 

 ^ lin. long, ovate, acute, harshly puberulous ; cymes (including the 

 peduncles) 11-2 lin. long, in a few (or possibly several) opposite 

 crowded pairs arranged in a subspicate manner at the tips of the 

 branches, each with 3 involucres ; bracts under the involucres i-f 

 lin. long, spathulate, with a broad petiole and transversely oblong 



