U'u^JiorUa.] EUPIIORBIACE^. (Browu), 331 



120. E. marlothiana (N. E, Br,) ; rootstock or main l)ody of the 

 plant subterranean, clavate or elongatecl-obconic, often subglobosely 

 thickened at the apex, from which arises several erect or ascending 

 ■succulent branches 3-15 in. long, these are at first about 3-5 lin. 

 thick, covered with rhomboid or oblong flattish tubercles only ^-'^ 

 lin. prominent, with age they get buried in the sand, become 

 clavate like the main body and up to 1 in. (or more?) thick, and in 

 turn produce slender branches at their apex in like manner ; leaves 

 1-3 lin. long, oblong or linear, spreading, channelled, acute, with 

 recurved tips, fleshy, glabrous, soon deciduous ; peduncles 1-4 at a 

 time to a branch, at the tips, withering and often persisting, but 

 not becoming hard or woody, -]-2 in, long, erect, glabrous, bearing 

 1 involucre ; bracts deciduous, not seen ; involucre sessile between 

 the bracts, 6-7 lin. in diam., broadly and rather shallowly bowl- 

 shaped below the 5 glands, with 5 hirge erect subquadrate toothed 



H 



puberulous outside ; 



glands not contiguous, spreading, divided to slightly below the 

 middle into 2-6 linear white (becoming reddish with age) processes 

 dilated and slightly bi^anched at their tips, with the undivided part 

 broadly wedge-shaped, without a lip or turned-up margin at the 

 base, 1-1^ lin. long and about the same in breadth across the top, 

 ^vith revolute sides, green; ovary and capsule sessile, the former 

 included in the involucre, subglobose, pubescent ; styles united into 



■a column about 1| lin. long, with short arms dilated and 2dobed at 



^he tips ; entire capsule and seeds not seen. 



Coast Rkgion : Cape Div. ; on sandhills, near 2S"eu Eisleben, in the heart of the 

 ■Cape Flats between "Wrnberg and Somerset Straud, about 10 miles from the 

 iiearest railway station, flowering in October and November, Marhth, 5733 ! 



This species is allied to E. 3Iuini,-^. E. Br., the two evidently having the 

 P'me general habit. But £. Marhthii distinctly differs from E. Muirii in having 

 fewer flowers to a branch, peduncles withering in a ditferent manner, larger 

 involucres and the glands have their undivided part as long as broad, without a 

 turned-up lobule at the base, whilst in E, Muirii the undivided part is twice as 

 broad as long, with a turned-up lobule at the base, and the gland is much shorter 

 than in E. Marhthii and apparently different in colour. 



121. E. Muirii (N. E. Br.) ; rootstock or main body of the i>lant 

 turied in the ground, not seen ; stems or branches 6-8 in. (or 

 perhaps more) high, 3^-4^ lin. thick when dried, evidently much 

 ■stouter when alive, erect, simple or with a whorl of 3-7 branches at 

 or near the top, succulent, cylindric, covered with rhomboid tubercles 

 2^-6 lin. long, 1-1-2 lin, broad and |-1 lin. prominent, tipped 

 with a white leaf-scar, spineless, but often with (sometimes w^ithout) 



persistent peduncles, glabrous; leaves erect, 2^-5^> lin. long, 

 i-f lin. broad, linear, acute, fleshy, apparently channelled down 

 the face and keeled on the back, glabrous; peduncles 4-11 lin. 

 long, solitary in the axils of the tubercles, usually forming an 

 ^mbel-like cluster at the tips of the branches, glabrous, bearing 4-6 

 bracts and 1 involucre; bracts U-2 lin. long, oblong to elliptic- 

 obovate, concave, entire, glabrous outside, thinly pubescent within, 



some 



^i 



