Sardalacea.] santalaceje. 299 



without stipules. Flowers usually small and green, in terminal or lateral 

 heads, cymes, or spikes. 



A considerable Order, widely spread over the temperate regions of the globe, with a few 

 tropical species. 



1. HEWSLOWIA, Blume. 



Flowers unisexual. Perianth-lobes 5 or rarely 6, triangular. Stamens in- 

 serted near their base. Style short, stigma 3- to 5-lobed. Fruit a drupe. 

 Albumen deeply lobed. — Shrubs usually parasitical, with the habit of Viscum. 

 Leaves alternate, 3 to 7 -nerved. Flowers small, axillary. 



A small tropical Asiatic genus. 



1. H. frutescens, Champ, in Keto Journ. Bot. v. 194. An erect or trail- 

 ing glabrous shrub, apparently terrestrial, but probably a parasite on under- 

 ground stems or roots. Leaves obovate, obtuse, l^to 2 in. long, narrowed into 

 a short petiole. Peduncles axillary, clustered, 1 to 2 lines long. Male flowers 

 globular, not 1 line long, pedicellate, in little umbels or cymes. Female 

 flowers on a separate plant, solitary on each pedicel, and ovoid. Drupe ovoid, 

 about |- in. long, crowned by the perianth-segments. Endocarp thin, but hard, 

 with numerous projecting plates penetrating between the lobes of the seed. 

 Albumen with numerous obovoid or oblong superposed lobes, radiating from 

 a narrow continuous axis in the centre of which lies the linear embryo. 



Common on the hills, Champion; in the Happy Valley woods, Wilford ; also Wright. The 

 //. heterantha, Hook, fil., from northern India, which I had thought might be the same 

 species, proves distinct in many points. It is easily known by the small flowers, sessile, in 

 little heads at the top of the peduncles. 



Order XCIY. EUPHORBIACEJE. 



Flowers always unisexual, either without a perianth in one or both sexes, 

 or more frequently with a simple calyx-like perianth, or sometimes also with 

 4 or 5 petals alternating with the calyx-lobes. Stamens various. Ovary 

 consisting of 3 or sometimes 2 or more than 3 united 1 -celled or rarely 2- 

 celled carpels, each with 1 or 2 pendulous ovules. Styles as many as carpels, 

 free or more or less united, ei.tire or divided, the stigmatic surface usually 

 lining their inner face. Fruit either capsular, separating into as many elasti- 

 cally 2-valved cocci as carpels, leaving a persistent axis, or succulent and in- 

 dehiscent, the endocarp consisting of as many indehiscent nuts or cocci as 

 carpels. Seed laterally attached at or above the middle, with or without an 

 arillus. Embryo straight, with flat cotyledons and a superior radicle, in a 

 fleshy albumen, or very rarely the cotyledons fleshy, and little or no albumen. 

 — Trees, shrubs, or herbs, often abounding in acrid milky juice. Leaves alter- 

 nate or opposite, rarely divided or compound, usually with stipules. In- 

 florescence very varied. Flowers usually small. 



A very large Order, most abundant within the tropics both in the New and the Old World, 

 gradually diminishing in numbers in more temperate regions, and very few ascending into 

 alpine or cold climates. 



Tribe 1 . Euphorbiese. — Involucre calyx-like, including several male flowers (single 

 stamens), and 1 central female one (a single pedicellate pistil), without any perianth, 

 forming a flowerhcad resembling a single flower 1. Euphorbia. 



