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Euphorbia. | EUPHORBIACEAE. 393 
Orper LXXVII. EUPHORBIACEAE. 
Flowers unisexual, either without a perianth in one or both sexes, or 
more frequently stele a simple calyx-like perianth, or sometimes also with 
4 or 5 petals alternating with the calyx-lobes. Stamens various. ae 
consisting of 3, sometimes of 2, or more than 3 united 1-celled or rarely 
2-celled carpels, each with 1 or 2 pendulovs ovules. Styles as many 
as carpels, free or more or less united, entire or divided, the stigmatic 
surface usually lining het nner face. Frui either capsular, separating 
into as many elastically 2-valved cocci as earpels, leaving a persistent 
axis, or succulent and indehiscent, the endocarp consisting of as many 
indehiscent nuts or cocci as saenbla Seed worn! attached at or above 
the middle, with or without an arillus. mbryo straight, with flat 
cotyledons and a superior radicle, in a fos albumen, or very rarely 
the cotyledons fleshy, and little or no albumen. — Trees, shat or herbs, 
often abounding in acrid milky juice. Leaves alternate or opposite, rarely 
divided or compound, usually with stipules. Inflorescence very varied. 
Flowers usually small. - 
A very large ape most abundant in the tropics, gradually diminishing in numbers 
in more “temperat regions, and very few ascending into alpine or cold climates. 
Tribe I. Sudchias Involucre calyx-like, including several male 
flowers (single stamens on staminophores) and 1 central female 
flower (a pistil on a gynophore), without any perianth, forming 
& flower-head which resembles a single flower 1. Euphorbia. 
Tribe II. Crotoneae. Male and female flowers within separate bracts ; 
h the same spike, or in different spikes or plants, mostly w with 
ate 
& perianth. ary-cells 1- 
Perianth calyx-like; petals none: ’ 
Filaments simple . ; i ; ; ra a : ‘ , 2. Claoxylon. 
Filaments branched ; , , : ; : " i . 3. Ricinus. 
Calyx and corolla present: 
Calyx 2—3-cleft, valvate; stamens 15 or more gira cate it ethers 
5 
Calyx 5-cleft, imbricate; stamens S—10 . Jatro, 
Tribe III. Fhyltonthoas, Male and female flowers separate. "Ovary- 
cells 2-oyvulate 
Flowers in axillary clusters; ovary 3-celled . . & Phylianthus. 
“gh in axillary spikes, es or panicles; ovary Le elle d 7. Antidesma. 
To this Order belong also the following cultivated plants besides those mentioned 
under ome ha a genera bel Ow: aeeetnes © a agpoa it Fete the Tapioca plant, Stillingia 
sebifera, Michx, t , one of the American India- 
rubber trees. siephans aeum Moluccaneum, pont in fetid ‘antl is a favorite > garden 
on account of its ‘ae ated leaves. Hura crepitans, L., the West Indian Sandbox tree, 
= met with in a few places, and perhaps rigor Indica, L., an Indian weed, 
0 be mentioned, which had appeared as a weed in gardens and may possibly 
tisye os aturalized. 
1. EUPHORBIA, L. 
Flower-heads resembling a single flower. Involucre calyx-like, cup- 
shaped, with 4 or 5 minute lobes alternating with as many sibinoiaial 
ands, which are sometimes expanded into petal -like appendages. Within 
are 10—25 male flowers, consisting each of a single staminophore, which 
