Euphorbia.'] euphorbiace.e. 301 



are sometimes expanded into petal-like appendages. Within are 10 to 15 

 male flowers, consisting each of a single stamen with an articulated filament, 

 and a single female flower in the centre, reduced to a stipitate 3-celled ovary 

 protruding from the involucre, with 1 pendulous ovule in each cell. . Stvfe 

 3-cleft, the branches (or distinct styles) entire or 2-lobed. Capsule separa- 

 ting into 3 2-valved cocci. — Herbs or shrubs, abounding in milky juice. Stem- 

 leaves alternate, without stipules, the flowering-branches, umbellate, dichoto- 

 mous, with usnally opposite leaves ; or all the leaves opposite and often stipu- 

 late ; or succulent leafless shrubs. 



A very large geuus, dispersed over nearly the whole world. 



Succulent shrub, leafless, or with small scattered leaves 1. ^. Tirucalli. 



Herbs. Leaves below the umbel alternate '2,, E. helioscopia. 



Herbs. Leaves all opposite and minutely stipulate. 

 Capsules glabrous. 



Cymes (small) loosely dichotomous 3. jE". hypericifulia. 



Flower-heads 2 or 3 together, almost sessile in the upper axils . 4. E. sanguinca. 

 Capsules covered with appressed hairs. 



Leaves 1 to 1^ in. Flower-heads very numerous, minute, in 



very dense pedunculate heads or cymes 6. J?. pUuHfera. 



Leaves 2 to 3 lines. Flower-heads few, in almost sessile cymes . h. E. thymifolia. 



1. E. Tirucalli, Linn.; Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 470. An erect nnanned 

 succulent shrub or small tree ; the branches cylindrical, scattered or clustered, 

 very divergent, of a bright shining green. Leaves none, or very few and small, 

 linear-oblong. Flower-heads clustered on very short pedicels in the forks of 

 some of the smaller branches. Glands of the involucre peltate. Capside hairy. 

 Styles 2-lobed. 



Common in the island, Hayice. In hedges, etc., over a great part of India and the .Archi- 

 pelago. It seldom produces flowers, and still more rarely fruits, we possess neither in the 

 Kew herbaria, and I only know them from Roxburgh's description and drawing. 



2. E. helioscopia, Linn.; Willd. Spec.\\. 914. An erect or ascend- 

 ing annnal, 6 or 8 in. to 1 ft. high, simple or with a few branches ascending 

 from the base. Stem-leaves alternate, obovate or broadly oblong, narrowed 

 into a short stalk. Umbel of 5 rays, each ray once or twice forked ; the 

 branches very short. Floral leaves opposite, broadly obovate or orbicular, 

 minutely toothed. Glands of the involucre entire and rounded. Capsules 

 glabrous and smooth. Seeds pitted, with raised reticulate veins. — E. Ltqjhs, 

 Seem. Bot. Her. 409 ; not of Linn. 



Cultivated and waste places, Hance. A common weed in Europe and temperate Asia, 

 appearing also here and there in northern India. 



3. E. hypericifolia, Linn. ; Willd. Sp. ii. 895 ; Hook. Exot. Fl. A 36. 

 An ascending or erect annual, 6 in. to 1 or 2 ft. high, glabrous or minutely 

 hoary. Leaves all opposite, from ovate to naiTOw-oblong, | to 1 in. long, 

 obtuse, serrulate, usually very oblique at the base. Cymes snudl, loosely dicho- 

 tomous, terminal or in the upper axils. Involucre about y line long; the 

 glands small and entire, with small orbicular white petal-like appendages, 

 sometimes scarcely perceptible, sometimes twice as broad as the gland. Cap- 

 sule about 1 line \liameter, quite glabrous. Seeds with 4 prominent angles, 

 and slightly wrinkled between them. 



In waste places, Hance and others. A connnon weed in tropical countries, especially 



