Dalechampsia is placed in this tribe, but does not 

 well accord with its character. 



Judging from the 



Indian species only, this genus would require 

 for itself. 



Flowers apet 

 flowered. 



2d. HippoMANE^. Ovules solitary, 

 alous, in spikes : -bracts one- or many 



3d. AcALYPHE^. Ovule solitary. Flowers apet- 

 alous, in clustered spikes or racemes. 



4th. Crotone^. Ovule solitary. Flowers usually 



having petals, in clusters, spikes, racemes, or pauicles. 



In this tribe the higher devcloDmeut of the flowers. 



can, and as if to show its inability to raise itself high- 

 er, we find in some genera petals in the male flower 

 but wanting in the female. Coinciding then with 

 those who view separation of sexes in plants as an 

 indication of a lower grade of development than 

 their union in the same flower, I would, in any ar- 

 rangement I had to propose, place this order among 

 the diclinous ones. This Lindley has done in his 

 " Vegetable Kingdom" and, to my mind, thereby great- 

 ly improved on the arrangement of his Nixus, and 

 the 2d edition of his Natm'al System, in which last 

 and in Endlicher's Genera Plantar, it lias always ap- 



as shown by the presence of petals, is made use of peared to me misplaced and stationed among unsuit- 



in groupmg 



5th. Phyli^anthe^, Ovules in pairs. Stamens 

 in the centre of the flower. 



6th. BvxBM. Ovules in pairs. Stamens inserted 

 beneath the sessile rudiment of an ovary. 



Illustrations of each of these tribes wiU be found 

 in the following plates, in which I have made it a 

 principal object to represent as many genera as pos- 

 sible; about 40 having found places, in this series, 

 will give a fair idea of the Indian branch of the order. 

 More of course might have been given, but other 

 orders must in that case have suffered, as my space 

 is now limited. 



On the affinities of this oi'der and the place it 

 should occupy in the system of vegetables, two ad- 

 verse opinions prevail, Jussieu and his followers 

 believing that its proper place is in the diclinous apet- 

 alous class ; while Lindley and those who coincide 

 in opinion with him place it among the polypetalous 

 orders, as one " losing its petals in part of its spe- 

 cies." Lindley says, " But if, instead of considering 

 the imperfectly developed genera of Europe as typi- 

 cal of the true structui-e of the order, we look to 

 those of tropical countries, we find that the apetalous 



character by no means holds good in them 



upon looking thi'ough the genera described by Adi'ien 

 de Jussieu in his monograph, it appears that out of 

 61 genera no fewer than 32 have petals. The tenden- 

 cy of the order is, therefore, at least as gi-eat to form 

 petals as to want them. Now if this be so, and the 



separation of sexes is disregarded^ it will be found," &c. 



Such being the two sides of the question, I do not 

 presume to sit as umpire between the adverse parties, 



but would ask in my own name, Wliy disregard the 

 separation of the sexes ? why throw out of consideration 



a ch'cumstance so very constant throughout the large 

 assemblage of plants brought together under this 

 family name ? If separation of sexes is, as it gene- 

 rally is, to be viewed as an indication of diminished after the fall of the leaves, 

 perfection in the floral development, then the very 



able company. 



1862- Euphorbia Nivuua (Hamilton), branches 

 round, naked below, leafy on the apex : stipulary 

 spines naked, paired, spiral : leaves tez^minal tongue - 

 shaped, mucronate, fleshy. 



Arid rocky hills near Coimbatore, also frequent in 

 similar localities in the Madura District. 



This plant attains the size of a large shrub. The 

 branchlets come off in whorls of four. The leaves 

 are deciduous dm'ing the cool season and the plant is 

 usually naked in January and February. In March, 

 when being clothed with new foliage, the flowers make 

 their appearance. The first that opens is usually sterile 

 (that is, wanting the pistil), which is shortly after 

 followed by two lateral fertile ones (fm*nished with 

 both male and female organs), which ripen then- 

 seed in April and May. The stamens, or more pro- 

 perly the male flowers, are each fm^nished at the base 

 with a large obovate cuniate fringed bract, but is des- 

 titute of the calycine appendage at the joint. 

 • The leaves are from 4 to 6 inches long by from 

 1|- to 2 broad, near the apex, whence they taper to- 

 wards the base ; smooth shining glabrous, quite entire, 

 succulent. 



In the above description, I have spoken of the 

 flowers as understood by Linnaeus and the older 

 Botanists, not as viewed by modern ones, that is, as an 

 involucre containing an indefinite number of monan- 

 drous male flowers suiTOunding a solitary female one, 

 supported on a more or less elongated pedicel by 

 which it is protruded beyond the cup of the involucre ; 

 the whole together forming not a single flower, but a 

 capitulum, as in Composite. 



1863. Euphorbia teigona (Roxb.), shrubby, 



erect, 3-sidcd with prominent repand angles : stipulary 

 spines 2 or sometimes 4 : leaves deciduous obovate, 

 cuniate : peduncles above the axils, 3-flowered ; the 

 middle one sterile the lateral ones fertile : flowering 



exti-aordinary circumstance of about 2500 species, all 

 belonging to one natural order and all agreeing in that 

 particular, seems at once to stamp the order a3 one 

 which ought to occupy a lower grade in the series 



•ganization 



perfect 



kingdom. Add to the imiversal imperfection of sex- 

 ual separation, the want, in at least one half the 

 species, of one of the floral verticels and in many 

 others both, and we can scarcely, I thmk, help arriv- 

 ing at the conclusion that, in place of this being a 

 polypetalous order, losing its petals in a part of its 

 species, it is in truth a most unequivocal diclinous one, 

 striving, as it were, to raise itself in the scale, by get- 



Rocky arid hUls near Coimbatore, flowering Feb- 

 ruary and March* 



The drawing was made from a young plant which 

 flowered in my garden. The leafy branch exhibits 

 the plant in leaf, the flowering one was taken from a 

 branch which flowered for the first time and only 

 produced male flowers. The dissected flowers were 

 obtained from wild plants, perhaps, too young, as the 

 female flower is almost sessile not as usually seen, 

 supported on a long pedicel. 



The vertical section at 'So. 5, shows the gradation 

 of male flowers which continue, for some weeks, suc- 

 cessively to appear above the edge of the involucrum. 

 The tube of the involucre is filled with numerous 

 petaloid deeply lobed and fringed bracts. The sterile 



many of its species as it possibly flower is neai'ly sessile, the fertile ones pedicelled. 



C 19 ) 



