GREENMAN. 



PHANEROGAMS, 479 



number of specimens of this species at hand show the foliage to be ex- 

 tremely variable. The leaves are ovate, elliptic-oblong to linear, 2 to 

 12 cm. long, 2 to 18 mm. broad, deeply incised-dentate (especially 

 toward the base) to entire, usually with one or two larger divaricate tri- 

 angular teeth at the base of the blade, which give the leaves a halberd- 

 shaped appearance. The bicornute greenish appendages of the four 

 glands of the involucre and the tetragonal seeds associated with the 

 cTichotomously branching glabrous stems, notwithstanding tlie strongly 

 polymorphous character of the leaves, readily distinguish this species 

 from E. heterophylla, L., with which it has been confused. The follow- 

 ing specimens may be referred to E. lacera : Valley of San Luis 

 Potosi, Schaffner, no. 859 (in the Gray Herbarium under E. lieteropliylla, 

 L., var.) ; Sierra de San Felipe, Oaxaca, altitude 2300 m., 11 Septem- 

 ber, 1894, Pringle, no. 5G19 ; at EI Parin, Oaxaca, altitude 1230 m., 

 3 October, 1894, Pringle, no. 5707 ; also Pringle's no. G685, collected 

 on limestone hills near Tehuacan, altitude 2000 m., 30 August, 1897. 



Euphorbia prostrata. Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1, ii. 139. To this 

 species may be referred Pringle's no. 6436, Euphorbia ramosa, Seaton, 

 var. villosiur, Greenman, Proc. Am. Acad, xxxii. 297, also Pringle's 

 no. 6683, collected on dry limestone ledges, Tehuacan, altitude 1540 m., 

 27 August, 1897 ; both specimens correspond well with Parry and 

 Palmer's no. 818, Karwinski's specimen from Mexico without further 

 data, and also with other authentic material. 



The E. ramosa, Seaton (Proc, Am. Acad, xxviii. 121), is very closely 

 allied to, if not specifically the same as E. prostrata, Ait,, differing only 

 in the glabrous capsules, and the less villous character of stem and 

 leaves. The mature seeds in all the specimens mentioned above are 

 grayish, subquadrangular, somewhat furrowed, more or less transversely 

 rugose, and distinctly foveolate or honeycombed. The less mature 

 seeds are more apt to be reddish, and more distinctly furrowed. 



Euphorbia (Alectoroctonum) tricolor, Suffruticose, 1 m, or 

 less in height : stems and branches covered with a grayish red bark, 

 somewhat striated, puberulent on the young shoots ; nodes 1 to 6 cm. 

 distant: leaves petiolate, ternate, quaternate, or the uppermost opposite, 

 oblono-'Ovate, 1 to 2 cm. long, two thirds as broad, glabrous above, 

 sparingly pubescent beneath, rounded at the apex, entire, cuneate at the 

 base ; petioles pubescent, 4 to 8 mm. long ; stipules glandular : inflores- 

 cence in terminal usually close cymes : involucre wine-colored or some- 

 times greenish, strigillose-pubescent on the outer surface, also pubescent 

 within ; lobes laciniate ; glands subbilabiate, bearing oblong-ovate entire 



