o 



22 EUPHORBIACE.E (Browii). [EnphorUa. 



109. E. rudis (N. E. Br.); plant forming a liemisplierical mass, 

 spineless, but with tlie hardened remains of peduncles on the 

 branches; rootstock or main stem more or less buried in the 



ground, thick and fleshy, from which arises a mass of numerous 

 branches, apparently also partly buried in the ground with age, 

 glabrous; dried branches 1-6 in. long, >^~% in. thick, stouter when 

 alivej usually branching at or near the apex, cylindric, covered 

 with small crowded conical rhomboid tubercles about 2 lin. long, 

 1-1^ lin. broad and 1 lin. prominent, spreading or with a slight- 

 tendency to recurve at the hardened whitish leaf -scarred apex 

 perliaps glaucous when alive, as dried branches are covered with 

 a thin whitish waxy layer ; leaves in a small tuft at the very apex 

 of the growing tips, soon deciduous, recurved-spreading, \-\ m. 

 long, linear-lanceolate, subacute, longitudinally folded, with more 

 or less wavy margins, glabrous ; peduncles solitary in the axils of 

 the tubercles at the tips of the branches, ^—2- i^- long, simple or 

 once or twice forked, glabrous ; bracts alternate, all scattered on 

 the peduncle some distance below the involucre, none immediately 

 under it, 1-H lin. long, oblong-linear, concave, deflexed-spreading ; 

 involucre 1^-2 i- lin, in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, with 4-& 

 glands and 4-6 subquadrate or transversely oblong fringe-toothed 

 lobes ; glands distant, i-1 lin. in their greater diara., shortly 

 stalked or subsessile, transverse^ rather deeply concave or some- 

 what 2-lipped, with usually 2 (sometimes 3-4) subulate horns 

 arising from the back of the outer margin ; capsule sessile, erect, 

 3-3|- lin. in diam., shallowly and very obtusely 3-lobed, with a few 

 hairs on its upper part, otherwise glabrous, glaucous ; styles united 

 into a column ^ lin. long, with ascending-spreading arms \'~^ hu. 

 long, entire and not thickened at the apex; seeds If lin. long, 

 oblong or slightly conical-oblong, truncate at one end, abruptly 

 acute at the other, with an acute ridge down the back and one on 

 each margin with a short ridge between at the base on the dorsal 

 side, and 2 subcontiguous ridges composed of 2 pairs of short 

 ridges on the ventral side, whitish or pale greyish-white. 



Wester:? Region : Great Namaqualand ; near Gabis, 2800 ft., Pearson, 4310 ! 

 between Dabaigabis and Gabis, 2500 ft., Pearson, 43*i9 ! on stony slopes at 

 Grundoom, 3300 ft., Pearson, 4360 ! Great Karas Berg, at Kuibis, Pearson, 8014 ! 

 and common on sandy plains north-east of Naruda Sud, Pearson, 8141 ! 



110. E. inelegans (N. E. Br.); dwarf, succulent, spineless and 

 leafless; body of the plant globose, up to 3^ in. or perhaps more in 

 diam., bearing about 5 series of closely placed ascending branches 

 forming a crown around a depressed central area 1^-1 3 ii^- ^^ 

 diam., which is covered with acute conical tubercles but destitute- 

 of branches, glabrous, olive-brown ; branches all erect and attaining 

 to about the same level, none spreading, the outermost series about 

 3 in. long, the others gradually shorter, 5 lin. thick, cylindric, 

 densely tuberculate, somewhat dull green or greyish-green, tinged 

 with purple where exposed to the sun; tubercles rhomboid, lA'^ 



