EUPHORBIACE^. 359 



Female flowers without perianth : ovary ellipsoid, one- 

 celled with one ovule. Fruit a nut with crustaceous 

 pericarp adhering to the seed. Seed globular, with 

 copious oily endosperm. Embryo very small. 



Species ii in the Indo- Malayan archipelago, Australia and 

 New Hebrides. 



Balanophora indica Wall, Cat. 7247 ! ; ^-B.L v 237, 



1 3. Rootstock massive very warty, brown. Peduncle 3 



to 6 inches by ^ to I inch, with large scales I^ to 2 



by H inch at the base. Male spadix 2 to 3 by l to 



l^ inches, red. Perianth tube J^ inch ; lobes % inch, 



reflexed. Anthers connate into a thick mass 1/5 by 1/12 



inch, and opening by vertical slits. Female flowers 



minute in a dense round ball. 



On the surface of the ground near large trees. Nilgiri and 

 Pulney plateaus, not rare. Fyson 3088. 



Gen. Disl. These hills and Ceylon. 



EUPHORBIACE/E. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees with alternate leaves and 

 inconspicuous unisexual flowers (both sexes on the same 

 or on different plants) in which there may or may not be 

 a distinction of petals and sepals, and few or many 

 stamens, but the ovary nearly always of three carpels 

 and in fruit opening into its constituent carpels each 

 with one or with two seeds. Micropyles always pointing 

 upwards and outwards {raphe ventral) and more or less 

 surrounded by a fleshy outgrowth (the aril or caruncle). 



Species all over the world but practically confined to the 

 tropics. 



f Flowers minute, of an ovary or a single stamen only, and 

 massed in egg-shaped involucres .... euphorbia. 



Flowers distinct, and with perianth b 



Sepals and petals three each : stamens three or six, more or 



[ less united c 



A 



