356 EUPHOKBiACE.^ (Brown). [JSuphorUa, 



151 E. Pillansii (N. E. Br. in Kew Bulletin, 1913, 122, with fig.) ; 



succulent, spiny, leafless, branching at the base, dioecious; stems 

 or branches 2-6 in. high and 1^-2 in. thick, very obtusely 7-angled or 

 the branches when very young 5-angled, with the faces between the 

 angles nearly flat, marked with a central impressed line, so that 

 the angles are scarcely prominent except at the apex, glabrous, 

 transversely banded with very pale green and darker green, and 

 the bands alternating on each side of the impressed line, horizontal 

 (not oblique) ; angles with small teeth ^-f lin. prominent and 2 lin. 

 apart at the apical part, becoming slight crenations or almost 

 vanishing with age ; leaves very rudimentary, soon deciduous, i lin. 

 long, deltoid, acute ; spines (modified peduncles) scattered along the 

 angles, solitary, 4-7 lin. Ion*?, |-1 lin. thick, rigid, simple or with 

 2-6 diverging (not horizontally spreading) spines 2-4 lin. long at 

 their apex, glabrous, grey ; flowering peduncles erect at the tips of 

 the branches, 4-6 lin. long, ^-1^ lin. thick, simple and bearing 

 only 1 involucre or subumbellately branching and bearing a cluster 

 of 2-6 involucres on branches 2|— 3 lin. long, glabrous, green; 

 bracts on the peduncle ^^ lin. long, deltoid or deltoid-oblong, 

 subacute, very deciduous, those under the involucre 1 lin. long and 

 broad, subquadrate, apiculate, glabrous ; involucre (only males seen) 

 2| lin. in diam., cup-shaped or slightly obconic, glabrous, pale green, 

 with 5 dark green glands and 5 subquadrate toothed pale green 

 lobes ; glands spreading, contiguous or nearly so, 1 Hn. in their 

 greater diam., transversely elliptic or with the inner margin nearly 

 straight, entire ; stamens nearly glabrous, pale greenish-yellow ; 

 ovary and capsule not seen. 



Coast Region : Ladismith Div. ; near Doom Kloof Kiver, between Muis Kraal 

 and Ladismith, Pillansl and in Herb, BoluSj 12543 ! 



Described from a living plant sent to Kew by Mr. N. S. Pillans, which flowered 

 in Dec, 1912. Allied to L\ stellsesphia, Haw., but at once distinguished from that 

 species by the fewer angles, stouter spines and transverse pale greenish bars on 

 its stems. 



155, K valida (N. E. Br.) ; stem solitary, about 6-7 in. high, 

 3-3| in. thick^ in the specimens seen unbranched, succulent, leafless 

 and spineless, but bearing on the upper part the hard woody remains 

 of numerous branched cymes, cylindric-oblong in old plants, pr<>' 

 bably subglobose when young, not or scarcely depressed at the 

 rounded apex, 8-angled above, becoming cylindric at the base, 

 glabrous, dull green or purplish-green, or tuausversely marked with 

 pale green lines or narrow bands, becoming entirely brown on the 

 basal part, unisexual ; leaves rudimentary, about 1 lin. long, deltoid 

 or deltoid-ovate, acute, soon deciduous; cymes 1^-2 in. long and in 

 diam., arising from the angles at the apex, gradually developing 

 3 branches, which become 2 to 4 times forked, on peduncles 3-10 

 lin. long, 1-1^ lin. tliick, erect or standing out from the stem, 

 minutely puberulotis, green, becoming woody, brown and persisting 

 for several years ; bracts few and scattered on the peduncle, with a 



