EUPHORBIA.] EUPHORBIAQE&. 77 



ing small shortly peduncled solitary or twin 3- flowered cymes from 

 above the leaf-scars on the tubercles, ttye central flower of each cyme 

 usually male, sessile, and the first to appear, the 2 lateral ones male or 

 2-sexual and pedicelled ; lobes of involucres large, erect, ovate, firn- 

 briate ; glands transversely oblong ; bracteoles numerous, finibriate. 

 CapsuU in. broad ; styles connate to the middle, undivided. Seeds 

 smooth. 



Dry rocky hills of Merwara and in the Ajmere country (possibly wild). 

 It is used for hedges in Dehra Dun and probably elsewhere in the 

 Upper Gangetic Plain. The plant flowers and ripens seed during the 

 hot season, and the new leaves appear during the rains. DISTRIB. : 

 Outer ranges of N. W. Himalaya on dry exposed rocks ; also in Bengal, 

 Sind and Gujarat, extending to S. India and Burma ; cultivated else- 

 where. 



5. E. ligularia, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 36 ; Fl. 2nd. ii, 465 ; Royle 

 III. 328 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 563. E. neriifolia, Dak. and 

 Gibs, (not of Linn.) ; F. B. I. v, 265 ; Watt E. D.; Comm. Prod. 

 Ind. 530 ; Gamble Man. 590 ; Prain Beng. PI. 923 ; Brandis For. 

 FL 439 ; Ind. Trees 558. Vern. Sehund, mansa-sij. 



An erect fleshy glabrous shrub or small tree up to 20 ft. high. Branches 

 scattered, asbending, the younger ones 5-sided and angled and with 

 short sharp black persistent spines arising from thick tubercles which 

 are arranged in 5 irregular rows. Leaves alternate, fleshy, from near 

 the ends of the branches, 6-12 in. long, obovate-oblong or subspathu- 

 lately obovate, acute, deciduous, base narrowed into a short petiole, 

 margins undulate. Involucres hemispheric, yellowish, smooth, 

 arranged in small stout dichotomous shortly peduncled 3-15-flowered 

 cymes ; the lateral ones of the cymes with short thick pedicels, the 

 central sessile and usually male ; lobes large, erect, roundish, fim- 

 briate, glands transversely oblong ; bracteoles very many, firnbriate. 

 Styles connate above the middle, stigmas capitate. Capsules deeply 

 3-lobed, about \ in. broad. Cocci compressed, glabrous. 



On waste land near villages, but not truly wild within the area of this 

 flora. The leaves drop ofi in the autumn, the new ones appearing 

 again in May after the plant has flowered. DISTRIB. : Rocky places 

 in Orissa, the Deccan, S. India, Ceylon, also in Baluchistan and in 

 the Malay Islands, elsewhere cultivated and often used for fences. 

 The milky juice of this plant is used medicinally, and the root mixed 

 with pepper is regarded as an antidote for snake bites. The plant is 

 sacred to Mansa, the goddess of serpents. 



