466 DODECANDRiA TRiGYNiA. Euyliorhia. 



houses of the natives. Flowerino: time the months of 

 Februar) and March ; when perfectly destitute of foliage, 

 ripe seed not seen. 



Root branchy. Trunk when twenty years old, round 

 and scabrous, often a foot in diameter, the whole height of 

 the largest trees seldom more than twenty feet. Branches 

 scattered, ascending, haviag the young shoots constant- 

 ly five-sided, angled, somewhat spirally disposed and 

 armed w ith elevations like the teeth of the largest saw ; 

 each of these supports a leaf, and a pair of short, sharp, 

 black, hard, stipulary thorns. Like the other species 

 every part abounds with acrid milky juice, which is em- 

 ployed to remove warts, cure cutaneous eruptions, &c. 



Leaves alternate, about the summits of the branches, 

 short-petioled, inserted singly on the elevations, or ser- 

 ratures of the angles of the branches, wedge-shaped, en- 

 tire, waved, fleshy, smooth on both sides, almost vein- 

 less from six to twelve inches long, and two or three 

 broad, deciduous at the beginning of the cool season, 

 and appearing again after the flowers decay, in March 

 or April. Peduncles solitary in the sinuses between the 

 serratures of the angles of the branchlets, ^hort, once, 

 twice, or thrice dichotoraous, with a sessile llower in the 

 forks, that is, bearing three, seven, or fifteen flowers. 

 The sessile flower which is the largest, is often en- 

 tirely male, the lateral, or terminal peduntled ones 

 have always been fouud to contain one pistil ; and 

 male florets. Flotvers middling sized, greenish yellow. 

 Bractes reniform, opposite, embracing the base of the 

 pedicels on the outside, withering. Calyx* five petal- 



* The calyx and corol^ as hinted by that excellent Botanist 

 Jussieu, in his Genera Plantanim, page 424, may be considered 

 a common perianth, or involucre to many male florets only ; or en- 

 circling one female. The plants bearing such compound flowers, 



I have 



