232 BURMA, ITS PEOrLE AND PRODUCTIONS. 



EUPHORBIALES. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or diclinous. I'eriaDt/i various or none. Oirin/ superior 

 2 or many-celled. Oi-nUs 1 or many in each ceU, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit 

 usually capsular, 1 or many-celled. Cells 1 or many-seeded. 



Order EUPHORBIACE^. 



Flowers unisexual. Cali/x free, various, usually 5- or 3-lobed or toothed, or 

 wanting, the lobes imbricate or valvate. Corolla consisting of several petals, and 

 usually isomerous with the calyx-lobes and alternating with them, or very rarely 

 gamopetalous, hvpogynous, or more or less perigynous, or wanting altogether. Dink 

 variously shaped, or none. Stamens numerous, few or solitary, in the male flowers 

 central or inserted at the bottom or at the middle of the calyx. Filaments free or 

 united into 1 or more bundles, erect or variously incurved. Anthers free or cohering, 

 variously opening by 1 or 2 slits, rarely by pores. Ovary-rudiment in males various 

 or wanting. Orarij superior, usually 3 or 1, rarely many-celled, the carpels whoiled 

 round a central column, persisting after ripening of the fruit, with 1 or 2 ovules in 

 each, suspended from the summit of the inner angle. Sti/le various, usually short 

 and divided into as many entire or repeatedly branched stigmatic lobes as cells to the 

 ovary. Fruit various, usually a 3- to many-celled capsule, opening elastically into 

 as many valves, or drupaceous and indehiscent. Seeds with or without arillus or 

 strophiole. Emhri/o straight in a fleshy albumen, with flat cotyledons and a superior 

 radicle, or rarely the cotyledons fleshy, and little or no albumen. Trees, shrubs, or 

 herbs erect or climbing, very various in habit, with watery or milky juice. Leaves 

 usually alternate, rarely opposite or whorled, simple or divided. Stipules usually 

 pi'eseut. Flowers usually minute, forming various inflorescences. 



A very large order, more closely allied to Tiliacea: than to any other of apetalous 

 plants. An acrid milky juice is a prevailing character. The seeds of some are 

 purgative and the roots of others emetic. The manchineel (H/ppomaiie mancinella) 

 is a famous arrow poison. Enpliorbium, a gum resin, is produced by several cactus- 

 like Eup/iorbias. Some of the African species of this genus yield deadly arrow- 

 poison. The Brazilian caoutcliouk {Sijilionia elastica), a tree indigenous in Guayana 

 and Brazil, yields the bottle india-rubber. The seeds of many species yield oil like 

 castor-oil (Rieinus). The sweet and bitter 'cassava' is derived from the roots of 

 Mainhot utilissima, often cultivated by Burmans. 'Turnsole,' a well-known purple 

 and blue dye, comes from Crozophorn tinvtoi ia. A few yield edible but inferior 

 fiiiits, like Cieca distielia, Emhlica officinalis, etc. Box-wood [Bitxus semperrirens) 

 is a very hard and compact wood used in engraving. Several of the Burmese 

 euphorbiaceous trees yield good timber, especially those grown in deciduous forests, 

 while the timber of those peculiar to the tropical forests seems to be of inferior 

 quality or valueless (Kurz). 



* Oniles 2 in each cell. 



X Calyx imlricate in bud. 



J Fruit capsular-dehiscing , dry, or icith a sappy epicarp. 



f Capsule dry. 



+ Stamens round an orary-rudiment. 



AcTErnn..^, Illume. 



Styles free. Seeds naked. Capsule woody or di-y, coriaceous. Disk outside the 

 stamens. Stamens inserted on a flat 5-lubed receptacle round the base of the ovary- 

 rudiment. Orary 3-celled, the cells 2-ovulcd. Styles 3, united at the base, the 

 branches 2-cleft. Capsule tri-coccous, each coccus bi-valved. Neither arillus nor 

 albumen. 



A. JwAxrcA, Miq. E.S. Tree forests of South Andaman and Katchall. 



All parts quite glabrous. Loaves acute to cuneate at the base. Capsules smooth. 



