m 



UupJwrhia.'] EUPHORBIACE.E (Brown). 329' 



L 



n 



beneath ; flowers solitary in tlie axils of the tubercles, clustered at 

 the apex of the branches ; peduncles |-5 lin, long, stout, bearing 

 5-7 bracts and 1 involucre, glabrous; bracts about ^ in. long, 

 broadly ovate or elliptic, obtuse, ciliate ; involucre i in. or rather 

 more (or when dried 4-5 lin.) in diam., broadly "'and shallowly 

 cup-shaped, with 5 glands and 5 transversely oblong or sub- 

 quadrate connivent Jobes, subtruncate and closely toothed at the 

 top, glabrous on the back, pubescent on the inner face, red or 

 purple, at least at their tips; glands l|-2 lin. long and 11-3 lin. 

 broad, palmately divided to half-way down into 3-6 linear segments 

 entire or toothed at the tips, glabrous, with the undivided part 

 green, minutely pitted, and the segments white; ovary sessile, 

 obtusely 3-angled, glabrous; styles 1|— 1| lin. long, united to the 

 middle or nearly to the top, with erect shortly bilid tips, slightly 

 exserted beyond the lobes of the involucre ; capsule and seed not 

 seen. Linn. SysL ed 12, ii. 330; 3IiU, Gard. Did. ed. viii. no. 7 ; 

 Alt. Sort ^Kew. ed. 1, ii. 135 inch all vars. htit excluding the reference 

 toBreyne, Ic. Bar. PI 29, /. 19; Lodd. Bot. Cab. L 1315; Sp'enff. 

 Syst. Veg. iii. 787 ; Boiss. In DC, Prodr. xv. ii. 86 ; K Schimann 

 MonafsscJir. Kald. viii. 54 and 53 witli fuj. ; Berger in Mon- 

 atsschr. Kald. ix. 91 tcitli Jig., and SnU. Enplwrh. 110, fig.^29 ; 

 Marloth in Wissenscli. Ergehn. Deutsch. Tiefsee-Exped. ii. part 3, /. 9 ; 

 N, E, Br. in Kew Bulletin, 1912, 246, tvith fig. E, Frnctus-Pini, 

 Mill DicL ed. viii. no. 10. E. Medusa, Thunb. Prodr. ii. 86, and 

 FL^Cap. ed. Schultes, 404, E. tessellata, Siceet, Rori. Suhurh. Land,- 

 lOj. E. FritctuS'Pinij var. geminata, Sweet, Sort. Brit. ed. i. 356, 

 E. Commelini, DC. Cat. PI. Hort Monspel 110; Spreng. Syst. Veg. 

 lii. 787. Mednsea Fnidm-Pini, M. major and M, tessellata. Haw. 

 Syn. PI Succ. 134, 135, and Klotzsch d: GarcJce in Abhandl Alcad. 



Berlin, 1860, 61. — Tithymahis aizoldes Africanm simplici squamafo 

 caule, Commelin, Prselud. Bot. 57, fig. 7. Euphorliuin procumbens 

 ramis plurimis, dc. and E. procumhens ramis genunatis, &c., Burm. 

 Har, Afr. PL 17, 18, tt. 8, 9. Eiiphorbiuni anacantlnim angusta 

 Polygoni foUo, as to vars. 1 and 2 only, Isnard in Mem. LAcad. 

 Hoy. des Sciences, Paris, 1720, 386, 387. 



Coast Region: Cape Div. ; niouutains near Cape Town, Thunlerg\ Berjivsl 

 Kasteels Berg, Zeijhcr, 5082 ! shore near Green Point, Pappel mountain slopes 

 near Sea Point, Wilms, 3624 ! MacOimn, Herb. Austr.-Afr., 1530 ! Dimmer, 133 ! 

 Lions Head, FlUans ! Diets, 119 ! 



AVhen establishing this species, Linnaeus included under it and the varieties he 

 niakes no less than five didtinct species ; three are included in the references he 

 gives under the species, apart from the varieties. His desciiption is quite 

 ^adequate for identification and there is no specimen of it or the varieties in his 

 Herbariupi, but from his quotation of the Ilortiis Clffortianus and Ilortns 

 Upsallensis, he must have had in view a plant in cultivation. Therefore, as the 

 cultivated plant would be likely to be one occurring near Cape Town, I have taken 

 the only species of this group growing near that locality as being the true 

 ^. Cajput-Mcdusse, Linn. It is the plant that is certainly meant by three or four 

 of the references given by Linnaeus and also as understood by some later authors. 

 I describe from a living plant about 18 inches in diameter collected on the slopes 

 of Lions Head, near Cape Town and kindly sent to Kew especially for the 

 purpose by Mr. Pilians of Cape Town. It flowers in July and August. 



