450 cxxiT. EUPHORBiACE.t: (brown). [Steyiad^nium. 



Mozamb. Distr. German East Africa : llonia Mountain, near Lake Kukwa, 

 50(X) ft., Goetze, 1099 ! 



Described from the type, IciiuUy lent to Kew by the Berlin authorities. 



2. MONADENIUM, Pax in Engl. Jahrb. xix. 126. 



Apparent flower consisting of a cup-like involucre, truncate at the top 

 and open on one side to or below the middle, with a continuous gland 

 around its top margin to the opening, exceeding or as long as the interior 

 series of 5 membranous quadrate fringe-toothed erect lobes. Stamens 

 (really male flowers, as in Euphorbia, without a perianth) arranged in 

 groups opposite the lobes of the involucre, sometimes mingled with a 

 few filiform glabrous bracteoles and the groups separated (always?) by 

 deeply fringed-toothed membranous glabrous partitions. Ovary (really 

 a female flower, as in Euphorbia, with the perianth reduced to a mere rim 

 or of 3 small deltoid acute lobes) pedicellate, surrounded by the stamens, 

 exserted from the opening in the side of the involucre and recurved, 

 3-celled, with one ovule pendulous from the apex of the inner angle of 

 each cell ; styles 3, free or connate below, very shortly to deeply bifid ; 

 stigmas often thickened. Capsule obtusely or subacutely 3-angled, with 

 or without a double crest along the angles. Seeds oblong, 4-angled, 

 truncate at each end, carunculate. — Dwarf perennials 3 in. to 2 ft. 

 high, with perennial cylindric thick succulent stems or with a tuberous 

 (or woody ?) I'ootstock and erect annual herbaceous or subfleshy stems. 

 Leaves alternate, more or less fleshy, rigid when dried, with very small 

 or rudimentary stipules. Peduncles at first often bearing but one 

 nodding amply bracteate involucre, ultimately developing cymes with 3 

 or more bracteate involucres, solitary in the axils of the uppermost leaves 

 or maturing after the leaves have fallen at the apex of the stems. 

 Bracts usually connate in pairs into one oblique cup-like body {hract-cuj))^ 

 with overlapping or gaping margins enclosing the solitary involucres or 

 embracing the branchlets at the forkings and the involucre in the fork 

 of the cyme, all on one side of it, emarginate or notched or deeply 

 lobed at the apex and often 2-keeled on the back, rarely quite free. 



Species 23, all endemic. 



Cymes produced from the tuber, on peduncles less 



than 1 in. lonfj 2Z. M. simplex. 



Cymes produced from the upper or terminal part of 



the st-ms. 



♦Stems perennial, stout, fleshy, cylindric, glabrous. 



Stems (or branches ?) with slightly prominent 



lenf-scars in spiral series, having 1-2 black 



glands beside them and 1 in their axils, not 



tessellate 6. if. EllenhecJcii, 



Stems with rhomboid or 6-angled tessellations 

 or tubercles in spiral series, without glnnds. 

 Tubercles or tessellations with 1-6 very small 

 spines or prickles under or around the leaf- 

 scar or base of the leaf, sometimes obso- 

 lete. 



