2 go The Flowering Plants of Western Inaia. 



II. Leaves alternate. 



5. E. Tirucalli. Milk bush. An erect smooth shrub, con- 

 sisting of much-branched smooth round stems without leaves, 

 involucres clustered in the forks of the branches, inconspicuous, 

 capsule velvety. Nival, Sher, Kara. 



A native of Africa, but qnite naturalized. 



A few small leaves may be found by close examination, but it is 

 practically leafless. The milky juice is extraordinarily abundant and 

 sticky, so that it can be used as gum when its great acridity is not 

 an objection. 



6. E. neriifolia. The common prickly pear (but see Opuntia). 

 An erect fleshy shrub or small tree, branches jointed, cylindric 

 or obscurely 5-angled, with short sharp thorns as stipules 

 arising from thick tubercles, leaves obovate oblong, fleshy, 

 involucres yellowish in short-stalked clusters, capsule smooth. 



nival kcinta, mingut. 



This is one of those shrubs which is too well known. A perfectly 

 bare Deocan hill in the hot weather is scarcely less beautiful than 

 one covered with this painfully hardy shrub. If. makes both this and 

 the next natives of India. E. canariensis, described in Cook's voyages, 

 seems to be very similar. 



7. E. nivulia. Larger than the last, the leaves more fleshy, 

 and the tubercles which bear the thorns set in spiral rows all 

 up the stem. 



This might easily be mistaken for the last, but neither could be 

 mistaken for anything else. It is said to be more common than the 

 other in Guzerat and Sind. 



* E. antiquorum, of the same habit as the two last, but the branches 

 3 to 6-angled, with double rows of thorns along the angles ; leaves 

 none, or few and small, involucres about 3 to a peduncle. In the S. 

 of the Presidency, rare. Through the hotter parts of India and 

 Ceylon 



8. E. Rothiana. A smooth glaucous, erect, slender plant, 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate, involucres in terminal umbels with 

 broad, cordate bracts at the forks, glands 2-horned, viscid. 



Mahableshwar, Konkan, and Guzerat. 



This, and also species Nos. 1 to 4, are quite of the character of the 

 English spurges, the remarkable ovary (or capsule), often stalked, in 

 the middle of the involucre, catching the eye at once. 



* E.fusiformis (E.acaulis, D.). Stemless, leaves radical cuneiform 

 with curled margins, often spotted with red, peduncles from the 

 crown of the large spindle-shaped root, 5 to 7-flowered. Maha- 

 bleshwar, Sawant Wari, &c. (!>.). E. splendens, a small shrub, ex- 



