Rhopalocnemis.] cxxxiv. BALANOPHORE^E. (J. I). Hooker.) 239 



R. phalloides, Jungh. in Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. xviii. Suppl. 1. 

 233 ; Gaeppert 1. c. xxii. 1. 148, t. 11-15 ; Hook f. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxii. 

 52, t. 12 ; Eicliler in DC. Prodr. xvii. 138. Phseocordylis areolata, Griff, 

 in Trans. Linn. Soc. xx. 100, t. 8. 



EASTERN NEPALESE and SIKKIM: HIMALAYA ; on roots of trees, alt. 6-8000 ft., 

 J. 1). H. KHASIA MTS., alt. 5-6000 ft., Griffith, &c. DISTKIB. Java. 



Rootstock from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a man's head, hard and 

 rough, perennial ; sheaths at the base of the peduncles short, -1 in. diam. Peduncles 

 1-4 in. long, 2 in. diam. or less, (and heads) pale brown, cylindric, smooth or of the 

 male warted with scattered deformed bracts. Heads 3-8 in. long by 2-3 diarn., 

 the females most elongate ; bracts ^ in. diam., formed of peltate stipitate truncate 

 6-sided pyramids, cohering by their edges and falling away in masses. Male flowers 

 with the staminal column l-\ in. long, projecting far beyond the dense velvety mass 

 of filaments. Female fl. most minute ; styles bent down beneath the bracts, pro- 

 jecting as minute hairs when released. The germination of this genus and of Balano- 

 phora, should be studied, for the structure of their seeds is very obscure. 



ORDER CXXXY. EUPHORBIACSJE 



Herbs shrubs or trees, often with milky juice. Leaves alternate or oppo- 

 site, rarely divided or compound, usually stipitate. Inflorescence various ; 

 flowers usually small, often minute, always unisexual (in Euphorbia consist- 

 ing of single naked stamens in a perianth-like involucre, surrounding a 

 solitary pistil). Perianth simple and calycine, rarely petioled, ol'teu wanting 

 in one or both sexes, rarely double, with the inner of 4-5 minute petals. 

 Stamens various ; anthers 2- celled, often didymous. Ovary superior, of 3, 

 rarely more, or 2 carpels, more or less united together ; styles as many as 

 the carpels, free or united, entire or divided, stigmatic surface usually on the 

 inner face of the styles or style-arms ; ovules 1-2 in each carpel, pendulous 

 from the inner angle of the cell, funicle often thickened. Fruit either a 

 capsule of 2-valved 1-2-seeded cocci separating from a persistent axis, or a 

 drupe with 1-3 cells, or of one or more combined nuts. Seed laterally 

 attached at or above the middle of the cell, with or without an aril or thick- 

 ening at the hilum. Embryo straight, in a fleshy albumen, with flat 

 cotyledons and a superior radicle, very rarely exalbuminous with fleshy 

 cotyledons. Genera 200 ; species about 3000, chiefly tropical ; very rare in 

 cold countries. 



Various ornamental species of this Order are frequent in Indian gardens, espe- 

 cially Pedilanthus tithymaloides, Poit. (Kurz For. Fl. ii. 418; Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. 

 Fl. Suppl. 76), a West Indian succulent shrub allied to Euphorbia, but with a 

 scarlet slipper-shaped involucre, which is much cultivated in native gardens and 

 planted in hedges; and various species of Croton, with mottled green yellow and red 

 leaves, and the scarlet bracted Poinsettia pulcherrinta, which is a true Euphorbia. 

 The American E. geniculata, Orteg. (E. prunifolia, Jacq., Wall. Cat. 7690), is both 

 cultivated in gardens, and has been found apparently wild, but no doubt as an escape, 

 in the Sutlej Valley. Others cultivated tor useful purposes and occasionally found 

 apparently wild are the castor-oil plant, liicinus commwnis, Linn., and Exccecaria 

 sebifera, Miiller, both now so well naturalized in India, that 1 have introduced them 

 into the Flora ; as also the candle nut, Aleurites triloba, Forst., a tree, native of the 

 Pacific Islands, with oily albuminous seeds, that are used both as an illuminant and 

 in cookery. TheJKanihot utilissima, Pohl (Kurz For, Fl. ii. 402), a South American 

 tall herbaceous plant, with a tuberous root which yields Cassava bread and Tapioca, 

 appears to me to have no claim to be introduced into the Flora, though cultivated 

 here and there. 



VOL. V. K 



