f 



i 



310 EUPHOrvBiACE/E (Erown). [EupliorUa: 



Partly described from a living plaut (BuHt-Dcmj, 1953) received at Ke^v in 

 October, 1904. This species is closely allied to E, clavariokles, Boiss., but seems 

 to be v\-eU distinguished by the branches being usually quite simple, rather stouter 

 when dried, with less prominent tubercles, and (when alive) truncate at the top, 

 but becoming rounded when dried, all reaching to nearly the same level, forming 

 a flat or slightly convex top to the plant. The ovary also is thinly hairy ; whilst 

 in E. clavarmdcs the branches form a more or less convex cushion-like mass and 

 are constantly branched at their tips, obtusely rounded at the apex when alive, 

 and the ovary is glabrous. According to a note, this species is widely distributed 

 in the Transvaal and Orange Eiver Colony, growing in clayey soil on the borders 

 of Vleya. Goats eat it greedily. It has a strong odour like that of mice. 



92, E. esculenta (Marloth in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. i. 319) ; 



very dwarf, succulent, spineless and leafless \ main stem buried m 

 the ground nearly to the top, club-shaped or obconic, 4-8 in. thick, 

 with the central part of the flat or slightly depressed top covered 

 with conical acute tubercles and the outer part bearing a rosette (in 

 old plants attaining to 18 in. in diam.) of very numerous crowded 

 branches in several series, glabrous, green on the young parts, 

 becoming pale brown with age ; branches radiately spreading, 2-8 

 in, long, ^-1 in. thick, cylindric or the outermost tapering from the 

 base to the obtuse apex, quite unbranched, tessellately tuberculate ; 

 tubercles densely crowded in many spirals, flattish^ scarcely or but 

 very slightly prominent, lJ-3 lin. in diam., usually a little longer 

 than broad, obovate-rhomboid or subhexagonal, with a minute 

 central leaf -scar ; leaves rudimentary, minute, soon deciduous ; 



peduncles clustered at the ends of the branches, ^2 lin. long, 

 stout, with 2-3 alternate and 2 opposite bracts and 1 involucre, 

 glabrous, not persisting more than one season ; bracts oblong or 

 oblong-spatliulate, glabrous, ciliate ; involucres l|-2^ lin. in diam., 

 broadly and shallowly cup-shaped, glabrous except on the back of 

 the lobes, with 5-6 glands and 5-6 broad transversely oblon 



ft 



ciliate lobes and densely filled with white-woolly bracteoles ; glands 

 distant, reflexed and closely pressed to the involucre, |-1 liu. in 

 their greater diam., transverse and somewhat reniform or irregular 

 in outline, more or less deeply fissured and sometimes divided into 

 2 or more parts, x'ather thick and fleshy, convex, slightly corrugated, 

 brown; ovary sessile, glabrous; styles united into a column about 

 1 lin, long with recurved-spreading arms ^-| lin. long, with very 

 large stigmas deeply channelled down the face ; capsule and seeds 

 not seen. Marloth in Wissensch Ergebn. Deufsch Tiefsee-Exped. ii. 

 iilfg. 102,2. 



Ce>-tral Regio>^: Jansenville Div. ; Klipplaat, Marloth, 4162! common also 

 iu Graaff Reinet and Aberdeen Div., Marloth \ Willowmore Div. ; near Willow- 

 more, Brauns I 



Described from living plants sent to Kew by Dr. S. Schonlaad and branches 

 from the type plant and a photograph from Dr, Marloth. According to Dr. 

 Marloth, this plant affords ''a very nutritions food for stock in times of drought 

 and formerly was occasionally roasted in the ashes for human use. The involucres 

 are sweet-scented, like violets/' . 



J ■ 



93. E. gatbergensis (K E. Br.) ; very dwarf, succulent, spineless ; 

 body of the plant l^-I^ in. (or perhaps more) in diam., subglobose 



