THE INCOMPLETE 37 



the Manchineel Tree {Hippomane Mancinella) is said 

 to inflict a fatal illness on persons wlio sleep beneath its 

 shade; other members supply savages with their deadliest 

 poisons. It is therefore scarcely a matter for surprise 

 that the British representatives should possess in a milder 

 form the same characteristics as their tropical relatives. 

 The plants of this family are easily distinguished by their 

 milky juice and by the peculiarity of the flowers. AVe 





tr 



m 



Fig. 17,— Sun .Spurge {Euphorhia IleUoscopia) 



i^ay take the flower of the Sim Spurge as a tj-picai 

 Example, Wliat appears to be a single flower will l:ie 

 lound on observation to be numerous male flowers, each 

 consisting of a single stamen jointed to its pedicel (fig. 17), 

 3-nd arising from the axil of a small leaf at its base. 

 In addition there is also a female flower consisting of a 

 pistil made up of three fused carpels. The pistil is 

 placed pendent at the end of a comparatively long stalk 

 (fig. 17). This whole collection of one female and several 

 ^ale flowers is set inside a small cup -like structure, 

 which is not a perianth, but rather a collection of small 

 leaves which have fused to form the cup. I^astly, round 



(C935) 



4 



