A supplemental description of Euphorbia ephedromorpha 
H. H. BARTLETT 
The original description of Euphorbia ephedromorpha was 
drawn up from flowering specimens collected by Mr. C. C. Deam, 
in January, 1905, near Gualan, Guatemala. Mr. Deam has since 
supplemented the type material by specimens collected in June, 
1909, at the original locality. The specimens collected in January 
have no leaves (FIG. 1); those collected in June are in full leaf 
(FIG. 2) but show no trace of the caducous cymes. With the 
ample material of this anomalous plant, which is now available, 
it is possible to supplement the incomplete original diagnosis and 
to correct certain serious misconceptions regarding its relationship 
and morphology. Euphorbia ephedromorpha is not, as formerly 
stated to be, a member of the section Alectoroctonum. It cannot 
be placed in any of the sections defined by Boissier in de Candolle’s 
Prodromus, and so far as a careful search of the literature has 
shown, no species related to it have been described. A new 
section, Ephedromorpha, is proposed for its reception, to be 
ranged with the five of Boissier’s sections of Euphorbiae appendicu- 
latae which are characterized by the presence of stipular glands. 
Euphorbia§ Ephedromorpha sect. nov. 
Shrubs with winged stems. Leaves ample, deciduous, alter- 
nate, with two minute stipular glands at the base of the pet ole 
on either side of the flower bud. Cymes compound (i. e., main 
axis arrested by a cyme, not by a single involucre) ; bracts filiform- 
spatulate, opposite, only ene of each pair bearing an axillary 
branch. Involucral glands plane, ovate, with entire appendages. 
Seeds foveolate. 
Species two, Central American and Mexican. (The second 
species, represented in the Gray Herbarium by fragments too poor 
to serve as a type, was collected at Cerro Quiengola, Oaxaca, 
Mexico, Caec. & Ed. Seler 1611.) 
Euphorbia ephedromorpha Bartlett, Proc. Am. Acad. 43: 56. 
1907. 
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