EupJiorUa,'] EUPiiORBiACE^ (Brown). 34t> 



like, reddish-brown, beconiing grey with age, usually with a few 

 minute bracteoles, absent from some parts of the stem ; peduncles 

 (tlower-bearing spines) clustered at the apex of the stems, usually 

 1^-3 lin. long, sometimes up to 4 in. long, bearing 1 invoUicre and 

 several small scale-like ovate dull-purple bracts ; involucre uni- 

 sexual, 2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, most minutely puberulous on the- 

 upper part, dull purple, with 5 glands and 5 transverse toothed 

 lobes woolly on their inner surface; glands |-1 lin. In their greater 

 diam., transversely oblong, minutely pitted, blackish-purple ; ovary 

 at first subsessile, finally exserted on a pedicel about as long as the 

 involucre, globose, puberulous, dull purple ; styles 1^ lin. long, rather 

 stout, united for half their length, with bifid spreading tips. Lliui, 

 Ammn, Acad. iii. 108, excl, all syn, ; MUL Gard, Diet. ed. viii. no, 9 ; AH, 

 Hort. Kew. ed. 1, ii. 134, and ed. 2, iii. 156; Tkunh. Prodr. 86, and FL 

 Cap. ed. Schdt. 403 ; Willd. Sp. PI. ii. 883 ; Hau: Si/n. PL Succ. 129 ; 

 Spreng. Sijst. Veg. iii. 786 ; Boiss. in DG, Prodr. xv. ii. 88, partly^ 

 and Ic. Eiipliorl). t. 48; Bergei\ Sitl'Jc, Euphorh. 96, fg. 24 (excL syn, 

 E. enneagona). E. erosa and E. odonfojyhylla, Willd, Ennm. PL HorL 

 Berol. SuppL 27, 28; Li7ilc, Enum. PL Hort. Berol, ii. 9; Spreng, 

 SysL Veg. iii. 786. E. jjoJygonata, Lodd. Bot. Cab. L 1334. Treisia 

 erosUy Haw. SuppL PL Succ. 66, E. ecJtinaia, Salm-Dyck, HurL 

 DycJc. 342. E. cereifornm, var. ecliinata^ Sahn-DycJc, ex Boiss. in . 

 DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 88. 



South Africa ? : without locality, cultivated specimens ! 



Described from living plants. This s^^ecies was introduced into cultivation 

 about or before 1730 and is said to have come from South Africa, and according to 

 Thunberg it grows on the Karoo, but its native locality still appears to be unknown, 

 no modern collector having found it. The plant figured in Comn:ielin, Rar. 

 Plant. Hoi^t, Amstehd. i. 21, t. 11 as Enphorbiuni Cerei cffigie, etc. aud wrongly 

 quoted by Linn?cus under E. officinarum, may possibly be intended to represent 

 E. cercifonnig ; if this proves to be the case, then this species will not be a South 

 African plant, as Commelin states that it comes from near Salee on the coast of 

 Morocco. When founding E. cercifarmis, Linnaeus quotes as synonyms references 

 to four authors, of which that of Isnard belongs to E. officlnarum, Linn. ; that of 

 Boerhaave doubtfully belongs to E. cereiformis, and according to his synonymy 

 certainly includes E. stellsespinaj Haw. ; that of Burmann belongs to Crassala 

 Tyramidalis, Linn, f., and those of Morison and of Plukenet belong to E. steU<^- 

 spina, Haw. £. eereiformis, Lam. Encycl. ii. 414, is described as having nearly 

 sessile flowers, placed among the spines at the summit of the stems, this may 

 therefore possibly be the female plant of E. Jimbriata, Scop. ■ 



145. E. pentagona (Haw. in Phil. Mag. 1828, 187) ; a succulent 



spiny shrub, 4-9 ft. high, "forming a dense rounded bush" {Wood), 

 unisexual, with the stems and branches bearing clusters or whorls 

 of branches at intervals 4-18 in, apart, all erect and somewhat 

 closely packed, f-l] in. thick or perhaps thicker when old, usually 

 5-6- (occasionally 4- or 7-) angled, glabrous, green, becoming grey ; 

 angles acute, 1-2 lin. prominent, very slightly toothed or nearly 

 even, with broad triangular grooves between them, each marked 

 with an impressed line down the centre; leaves rudimentary, 

 spreading, 1-2 or under cultivation up to 3J Hn. long, J lin. broad, 



