234 SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS, 



The former are herbs with a milky juice known as 

 " Spurges/' and several have been introduced as weeds of 

 cultivation. The typical Euphorbias of the hotter parts 

 of Africa are leafless, with thick, angular, massive, and 

 fleshy stems. In this respect they resemble Stapelias 

 (see Fig. 75, p. 182) and the Cactuses of Mexico, but 

 the flowers invariably show the genus and order. 



These three plants — but others might be mentioned 

 — go to prove how plants can acquire outward forms 

 together with internal structures, in adaptation to the 

 conditions of soil and climate in which they live ; for 

 the fleshy stems and leaves (as of Crassulacece) are 

 really storehouses of water against the dry season when 

 no rain falls. 



Euphor'bia. — The illustration (Fig. 93) will explain 

 the structure of one of the small herbaceous species 

 which have been introduced, and are now common 

 about Cape Town. (1) is the terminal part of a plant 

 bearing inflorescences (and not one flower only). In 

 the fork of the branches (1, a) is an inflorescence. (2) is 

 the same enlarged, consisting of a coherent, cup-like 

 involucre (3, h, laid open), with crescent-like glands 

 (3, a) on the rim. In the common, fleshy-stemmed, 

 finger-like E. Ca'pivt-Medidsce, the glands are of a 

 dull purple colour, with a green-and-white appendage 

 between them. 



The involucre contains many male flowxrs (3, c) and 

 OTie female flower (2, h) ; only the pedicel is left in (3). 



