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EUPHOEBIACEiE. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



5. EICINUS, ^ Staminate flowers in much-branched clusters, below the pistillate. Shrubs 



or small trees, with peltate-palmate, 7-11-lobed leaves, 

 f t Flowers dicecions. 



6. MEECUEIALIS. Staminate flowers in clusters along axillary peduncles; pistillate 



1-2 together^ subsessile, axillary. Glabrous herbs. 



1. EUPHORBIA, L. Euphorbia. Spurge. ZIuleib-el-Bilm. 



Flowers monoecious, included in a cup-shaped, 4-8-lobed involucre, 

 resembling a calyx or corolla, usually bearing glands at the sinuses. 

 Staminate Jlowers numerous, lining the base of the involucre, each from 

 the axil of a little, ciliate-fringed bract, Tvhich takes the place of a calyx, 

 and consisting of a single stamen, with a jointed filament. Pistillate 

 flower solitary in the middle of the involucre, often protruded on a long 

 pedicel, with a 3-6 lobed, often obsolete, calyx. Ovary 3-celled, the 

 carpels splitting into 2 valves. Styles 3, each bifid — Shrubs or herbs, 

 with acrid, milky juice, the uppermost leaves often in whorls or pairs. 

 Peduncels lateral or terminal, often umbellate-clustered. 



(a) Branch of a typical Euphorbia (corollata). (J) An involucre containing several 

 staminate flowers, and one pistillate, (c) A staihinate flower with its ciliate bract, and 

 jointed fllament. (d) Transverse section of a fruit, showing its 3 carpels, (e) Longitudinal 

 section of a carpel showing its structure and relation to the axis. (/) The embryo with 

 superior radicle. 



Olanch ajypendaged. 



* All the leaves opposite, stipuled, oMique at lase. 



Prostrate annuals. 



1 E. Peplis, 2 granulata, 3 Chamsesyce, 4 ^gyptiaca. 



* * Lowei' leaves scattered, the rest op>X)osite, all stipiiled. Olands not 



appendaged, palmatijid. Annuals, with solitary inxohicres. 



