716 



EUPHORBIACEiE. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



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



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

 t t FloKcrs dicecions. 



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



1-2 together^ subsessile, axillar)-. Glabrous herbs. 



1. EUPHORBIA, L. Euphorbia. Spurge. Huleib-el-Bum. 



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

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

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

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

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

 Jtoicer 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. 



Fig. 329. 



la) Branch of a typical Euphorbia (corollata). (&) An niYolucre containing several 

 st9minate flowers, and one pistillate, (c) A staminate flower with its ciliate bract, and 

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

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

 superior radicle. 



* All the leaxes opposite, stiinded, oUique at hase. Glands appendagcd. 



Prostrate annuals. 



1 E. Peplis, 3 granulata, 3 Chamgesyce, 4 -ffigyptiaca. 



* * Lower leaves scattered, the rest opjjosite, all stipuled. Ohmds not 



apptendaged, palmatijid. Annuals, icith solitary invohicres. 



