Chrozopliora.] cxxxv. EUPHORBIACE^E. (J. D. Hooker.) 409 



Boiss. Fl. Orient! iv. 1140 ; EeicJil. Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 152 ; Sibt/t. FL \2r<zc. 



t. 950. 



The PANJAB, Thomson, Edgeworth ; Salt Eange, AitcUson. SCINDE and the 

 DECCAN, Stocks. DISTEIB. Affghanistan and eastward to the Mediterranean 

 region. 



Whole plant softly clothed with stellate tomentum. Root stout ; branches 6-10 in. 

 Leaves thick, softly tomentose on both surfaces; petiole often 3 in. Racemes short, 

 lengthening in fruit ; male fl. numerous ; pedicels of fern, at length decurved and 

 sometimes 3 in. long in fruit. Stamens 5-20. Capsules % in. diam. Boissier refers 

 Griffith's Afi'ghan plant to C. verbascifolia, which hardly differs, and is regarded as a 

 variety by Mueller it has thicker tomentum. 



2. C. obliqua, .4. Juss. Tent. Euphorb. 28 ; shrubby, erect or sub- 

 erect, thickly stellate-tomentose, leaves usually about equalling the petioles 

 or longer ovate sinuate-toothed, ovaries and capsules stellately tornentose 

 and with silvery scales. C. tinctoria, Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 

 749; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iv. 1141. C. oblongifolia, A. Juss. I. *c. Croton 

 obliquus, Valil Syrnb. i. 78 ; Geisel. Monogr. Crot. 71. C. oblongifolius, 

 Del. Fl. Egypt. 139, t. 51, f. 1. C. argenteus, Forsk. Cat. PI. Egypt. 75. 

 C. tinctorium, Wall. Cat. 7716 a. 



HINDOSTAN, Wallich. KASHMIR, Thomson, &c. ; the PANJAB, at Ferozepore, 

 Thomson. SCINDE, Stocks. DISTEIB. Arabia, N. Africa. 



A taller more bushy plant than C. tinctoria, described as perennial by Mueller and 

 Boissier, but the Panjab specimens are annual, as are others from Egypt, &c. The 

 stamens are 5 in the Ferozepore plant. In Wallich's the lower petioles are twice as 

 long as the leaf-blade and stamens 3r-4. Schweinfurth's C. obliqua (Plant. Nilot. 10, 

 t. 3), quoted under obliqua by Boissier, is not the true plant, being represented with- 

 out stellate scales on the capule. 



3. C. plicata, A. Juss. Tent. FupJwrl. 28 ; annual, prostrate or 

 ascending, leaves 2-5 in. broad subscabridly tomentose above, petiole 

 equalling or exceeding the blade, from ovate and sinuate-toothed or entire 

 to broadly rounded and lobed, ovary and capsule densely stellate-tomentose 

 without silvery scales. Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. ii. 747 ; Boiss. Fl. 

 Orient, iv. 1140 ; Dalz. fy Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 232. C. Eottleri, A. Juss. I. c. ; 

 Spreng. Syst. iii. 850 ; T/iwaites JEnum. 443. Croton plicatus, Valil Symb. 

 i. 75 ; Geisel. Crot. Monogr. 70 ; Roxb. Fl. 2nd, iii. 681. C. Rottleri, Geisel. 

 I. c. 54. C. asper, Kan. mss. C. tinctorius, Wall. Cat. 7716. (except G). 

 C. moluccanus, Willd. Sp. PI. iv. 551. C. Burmanni, Spreng. I. c. 851. 

 C. tinctorius & C. hastatus, Burm. Fl. Ind. 304 1. 62, f. 1 and 305, t. 63, f. 1. 

 C. polycarpus, Sort. Calculi. 



Throughout INDIA, from the PANJAB to TKAVANCORE, and from BENGAL to 

 PEGU and BUEMA. CEYLON ; near Trincomalee, Glenie. DISTEIB. Westward 

 to Spain and N. Africa. 



The larger states of this are to be distinguished from C. tinctoria by the rather 

 scabi-id upper surface of the leaves, and especially the absence of fringed scales on 

 the ovary and capsule ; in other respects it simulates the varieties of that plant. 

 The smallest states again look exceedingly different in habit, size of leaf, colour, and 

 especially in the shorter fewer-flowered racemes and small capsules. I am quite 

 unable to follow Mueller in respect of his reference of the older figures aud descrip- 

 tions to the three varieties he has established. Burmann's, Vahl's and Geisler's 

 descriptions are far too vague, and the figures of the former too inexact for deter- 

 mination. The following are the three prevalent Indian forms. I have seen no 

 specimens from the Moluccas or Malay Islands, or from any country S. or E. from 

 Burma. The Malaccan habitat attributed by Mueller to Klein is probably an error 

 for Malabar. 



