EUPHORBIA.] EUPHORBIACEJE. 75 



A dwarf unarmed glabrous herb. Stem reduced to a long stout under- 

 ground cylindric rootstock 6-18 in. long or more. Leaves all radical, 

 fubsessile, fleshy, glabrous, 6-8 in. long, oboyate or oblanceolate, 

 obtuso or subacute, base cuneate, margins curled, nerves not shoeing. 

 Cymes from the crown of the rootstock and appearing after the leaves 

 have fallen, dichotomously branched, very variable in length, 3- many- 



. fid : bracts ovate, or the upper or all truncate and 3-nd. ; Involucres 

 about 1 in. long, subsessile or on peduncles of variable length, hemis- 

 pheric ; lobes spathulate, nrnbriate. Capsule J in. in diam., pedicels 

 | in. long. Cocci compressed, styles connate to the middle, 

 broadly ovoid, subacute, smooth. 



Siwalik ran^e from Dehra Dun and Saharanpur eastwards along the 

 Sub-Himalayan tracts to N. Oudh and Gorakhpur (Royle, Falconer, 

 T Thomson, Duthie and others). It flowers during the hot season, 

 and the leaves develop afterwards and fall off during the rams 

 DISTBIB. : Tropical Himalaya up to 1,500 ft, from Garhwal to Nepal 

 and Bengal ; also in the Konkan and on the Deccan hills. 



2 E. antiquorum, Linn. Sp. PL 450 ; Roxb. Fl Ind. ii, 468- ; 

 Brandis For. FL 438 ; Ind. Trees 558 ; F. B. I. v, 255 ; Watt ED; 

 Comm. Prod. Ind. 530 ; Gamble Man. 590 ; Prain Beng. PL 9M ; 

 Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 563. Vern. Tidhara-sehnd. 



A large shrub or small tree 15-30 ft, ; trunk stout, cylindric or fluted ; 

 bark thick, rough, brown ; branches many, jointed, fleshy, green, 

 more or less whorled when young, prominently 3-(sometimes 4-6) 

 winged, the wide fleshy wings sinuately repand-crenate, narrowed 

 towards the joints and armed with pairs of persistent spines at the 

 protuberances of the angles. Leaves few, soon deciduous, shortly 

 petioled, J- J in. long, obovate-oblong ; tip rounded or subtruncate, 

 crenate ; nerves obscure. Involucres ternate, forming short pedun- 

 cled cymes in the sinuses, hemispheric, nearly \ in. broad, yellow ; 

 the two lateral ones on thick pedicels, the central one sessile and 

 female ; bracteoles many, fimbriate. Glands 5, large, broader than 

 long. Capsule about Jin. in diam. ; cocci compressed, glabrous- 

 styles 2-fid. 



Occasionally met with in village hedges, and sometimes in gardens as 

 a cultivated plant. DISTRIB. : Throughout the hotter parts of India- 

 and in Ceylon ; also in Burma and the Andaman Islands. It is largely 

 used for hedges, and the wood is believed by Indian peasants to pos- 

 sess the power of warding ofi lightning strokes. The acrid milky 

 juice supplies remedies for a great variety of ailments. 



