NORTH AMERICAN EUPHORBIACE^. 219 



diameter; seeds black, smooth wlien ripe, when nearly ripe 

 of a cinnamon-brown color covered with black punct?e. 



A peculiar ligneous shrub-like herb, with virgate branches, 

 short internodes and fugacious leaves, the older branches 

 appearing as if dead, while the branchlets given off at their 

 bases are in leaf, flower and fruit. — Comondu, February 

 17th, mature. 



Phyllanthus (§ Menarda) ciliato-glandulosus, sp. nov. 

 Annual, spreading from the filiform root, densely glandu- 

 lar-ciliate throughout, except the oldest leaves, which retain 

 but few cilia. Stems terete, somewhat irregularly branch- 

 ing; leaves petioled, mostly ovate, obtuse or emarginate 

 (often obtusely deltoid), abrupt at the base, petioles one- 

 third the length of the blade; stipules orbicular,, entire. 

 Inflorescence axillary, more or less geminate; flowers of 

 both sexes pedicellate. Male calyx 5-cleft, the lobes ovate- 

 acute, with 5 small anther-like, stipitate glands opposite the 

 clefts, stamens five, filaments separate to the base. Female 

 flow^ers larger; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, obtuse, hy;dine- 

 margined, with 5 alternating cylindrical glands at the base; 

 styles cleft to the middle, or in many flowers, entirely to 

 the base; stigmas slightly recurved; ovary globose, ciliate- 

 giandular. Capsule depressed, globose, glandularly ciliate; 

 seeds pale brown, finely pitted, each pit occupied by a bran- 

 like scale. 



Full-grown fruiting specimens vary from 2J cm. to 2 dm., 

 stems from 1 cm. to Ih dm. in length, leaves 1-h cm. long, 1 

 cm. broad, and much smaller to minute. — Magdalena Is- 

 land, February 25th. 



Croton (§ Eucroton) ciliato-glandulosus, Ortega (Plant. 

 rar. hort. matrit. dec. 4, p. 51, 1797). The specimens differ 

 considerably in vegetative appearance from those gathered 

 last year near Monterey, Mexico, by Pringle, though the 

 specific characters are exactly the same. — Paraiso, May 2d, 

 not yet in fruit. 



