EUPHORBIACE^ 



599 



The generic name is from 'iiriros and jxavia, and was first used by the Greeks to 

 distinguish some plant with properties excitant to horses. 



1. Hippomane Mancinella, L. Manchineel. 



Leaves 3'-4' long, l^'-2' wide, unfolding in early spring and persistent in Flor- 

 ida until the spring of the following year ; their petioles 2^'-4' long. Flowers 

 opening in March before the leaves of the year; rachis of the inflorescence 4'-6' 

 long, dark purple, more or less covered with a glaucous bloom. Fruit ripening in 

 the autumn or early winter and often persistent on the branches until after the ap- 

 pearance of the flowers of the following year, I'-l^' in diameter, light yellow-green, 

 with a bright red cheek; seeds about \' long. 



A tree, in Florida rarely more than 12-15 high, with a short trunk b'-& in diam- 

 eter, long spreading pendulous branches forming a handsome round-topped head ; 

 or in the West Indies often 50-60 tall, with a trunk occasionally 3 in diameter. 



Bark of the trunk \'-\' thick, dark brown and broken on the surface into small thick 

 appressed irregularly shaped scales, or in the West Indies sometimes smooth, light 

 gray or nearly white. Wood light and soft, close-grained, dark brown, with thick 

 light brown or yellow sapwood. 



Distribution. Sandy beaches and dry knolls in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the ocean ; keys off the southern coast of Florida ; on the Bahama Islands, through 

 the Antilles to the northern countries of South America, and to southern Mexico 

 and the eastern and western coasts of Central America. 



3. GYMNANTHES, Sw. 



Glabrous trees or shrubs, with milky juice and slender terete branches. Leaves 

 conduplicate in the bud, petiolate, entire or crenulate-serrate, coriaceous, penni- 

 veined, persistent ; stipules membranaceous, minute, caducous. Flowers monoecious 

 or rarely dioecious; inflorescence buds covered with closely imbricated chestnut- 

 brown scales, lengthening in anthesis, bearing in the upper axils numerous 3- 

 branched clusters of staminate flowers, their branches furnished with minute ovate 

 bracts, and in the lower axils 2 or 3 long-stalked pistillate flowers; calyx of the 

 staminate flower minute or 0; stamens 2 or rarely 3; filaments filiform, inserted on 



