286 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



more or less united, styles as many as the carpels ; fruit of 3 

 cocci, separating from a persistent axis, or a drupe, generally 

 3-celled. 



This is a very large and important order, chiefly tropical, though 

 there are a good many herbaceous species of Euphorbia pretty well 

 known in England. The order is, generally speaking, a very distinct 

 one, but there is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing the various 

 parts of the flower, which some botanists describe as consisting of 

 separate calyx and corolla. Hooker, however, calls the flower " a 

 perianth, sometimes double," though he also occasionally lapses into 

 calyx and corolla. " The family exhibits every gradation, from perfect 

 corolliferons blossoms to the most degraded flowers in all nature." 

 Grant Allen. 



The properties of the order are generally acrid, and often highly 

 poisonous, but not un frequently medicinal, as in the castor-oil plant 

 and the crotons. The milky juice is the most offensive part, and there 

 are many species (as there are of the English spurges) which, if 

 handled at all, unpleasantly affect the lips and nostrils. The Man- 

 chineel tree of the W. Indies, Htppomane manchinella, bears the worst 

 reputation. " The milky juice renders the cultivation of this tree, 

 and even the coming near to it, very dangerous. One cannot sleep 

 with impunity under the shade of it, and the water which drops from 

 its leaves after a shower raises blisters upon the skin and excites a 

 troublesome itching." Eaynal. 



Note. The species of Euphorbia and some other genera are easily 

 identified by the remarkable ovary, which is round or nearly so, but 

 deeply divided from top to bottom into 3 carpels topped by the styles. 

 The fruit is then simply this ovary enlarged. This may be called the 

 normal Euphorbiaceous ovary and fruit. 



Note. The leaves are alternate when not otherwise stated. They 

 are lobed in Bischofia, Jatropha, Givotia, Baliospermum, and Ricinus; 

 otherwise simple. 



1. EUPHORBIA. Leaves often opposite ; flowers monoecious 

 a number of male flowers consisting only of a single-stalked 

 stamen, and a single female, consisting of a stalked pistil of 3 

 carpels, are all enclosed in a cup-shaped involucre bordered 

 with 4 or 5 glands sometimes resembling petals; capsule of 

 3 cocci, separating with elasticity. 



Note. This genus, by the involucre, differs very decidedly from all 

 the rest, and is placed by H. in a tribe by itself. The above descrip- 

 tion requires explanation. The numerous male flowers and the single 

 female being as above described, and the involucre being more or less 

 like a perianth, the appearance of the whole is that of a single flower, 

 with about 12 stamens and a single pistil; and, in fact, Linnaeus thus 

 described the flowers of a large section of Euphorbias. 



2. BRIEDELIA. Flowers in clusters, bracted, sessile or nearly 



