360 EUPHORBIACE.^. 



{Sepals and petals two each : leaves three-nerved .... 

 SARCOCOCCA. 

 Perianth segments three to eight. Leaves erect. Fruit a 

 drupe . DAPHNIPHYLLUM. 



{Herbs or shrubs with slender branches . . phyllanthus. 

 Trees glochidion. 



EUPHORBIA. F.B.1. 135 I. 



Plants with milky juice and of very varied habit : 

 from small leafy herbs, erect or creeping on the ground, 

 to shrubs with green pencil-like leafless branches, to 

 large succulent, ribbed and angular, spiny leafless plants 

 of cactus-like habit, but clearly distinguished from that 

 family by having simple stout horns, not slender spines 

 intermixed with barbed hairs (as in the Prickly-pear). 

 The apparent flower really a collection of small much 

 reduced unisexual flowers each consisting of one jointed 

 stamen only or one stalked ovary only, without petals or 

 sepals : the former (male flowers) arranged in four or five 

 double zigzag rows radiating from the centre where is the 

 female flower. These all enclosed in a cup-shaped (calyx- 

 like) involucre with four or five oval or crescent-shaped 

 glands, which have often a white petal-like limb: the 

 whole structure forming a unit, in outward appearance 

 like a single flower, and called a cyathiiim. These 

 cyathiums are variously arranged, solitary or in cymes, 

 or bunches. Capsule splitting into three segments each 

 opening to let out the solitary seed. 



Species 600 in all except very cold climates. In Europe 

 Spurge, Milkweed. The Cactoid species are mainly developed 

 in South Africa. 



Euphorbia helioscopia Linn. ; F.B.I, v 262, I 44 ; Sun- 

 spurge. Stem usually erect, not branched as a rule below 

 the flowering region. Leaves sessile, obovate cuneate 

 with finely toothed, round end, and very straight sides. 

 Flower branches about five, from the axils of a whorl of 



