Euphorbia.] 



LXIX. EUPHOKBIACE^E. 



437 



Flowers dioicous, in panicles, catkins, or spikes ; ovary- 

 cells 2 -ovulate. 

 Leaves compound ; flowers in axillary panicles . . 7. Bischoffia. 

 Leaves simple ; male flowers in catkins ; female flowers 



in axillary spikes 8. Antidesma. 



Flowers usually monoicous, in axillary clusters, fascicles, 

 or solitary. 

 Leaves opposite ; styles free and distinct ... 9. Buxus. 

 Leaves alternate, usually distichous ; styles more or less 

 united. 

 Calyx 5-lobed, valvate ; petals 5. 



Ovary 2-celled ; styles 2 ; fruit a berry . . .10. Briedelta. 

 Ovary 3- celled ; styles 3 ; fruit a dehiscent capsule. 



Main lateral nerves prominent ; petals obovate . 11. Lebidieropsis. 

 Lateral nerves indistinct ; petals minute . . 12. Cleistantiius. 

 Calyx 4-6-lobed, imbricate ; petals wanting. 

 Stamens central ; no rudiment of ovary. 



Fruit a drupe with a hard rugose 1 -seeded putamen 13. Putranjiva. 

 Fruit dehiscent, dry or fleshy. 



Calyx deep 5-6-cleft ; segments not appendicu- 



late 14. Phyllanthus. 



Calyx turbinate, 6-lobed ; the lobes appendi- 



culate at the back (berries red) . . 15. Breynia. 



Stamens surrounding a rudimentary ovary, as long 

 as stamens. 

 Small trees ; fruit fasciculate, short-pedunculate ; 



white dehiscent berries . . . .16. Securinega. 

 Small shrubs or undershrubs ; fruit capsular, 



solitary, axillary, on long slender peduncles 17. Andrachne. 



African Oak or Teak, a heavy wood (60-70 lb. par cub. ft.), stronger than 

 English Oak or Indian Teak, which does not affect iron in contact with it, but 

 is not otherwise as durable as Teak, is employed for certain purposes in ship- 

 building. It is exported from the west coast of tropical Africa, and the tree 

 yielding it is as yet imperfectly known. In Hooker's Journal of Botany, ii. 

 (1850) t. 6, it is described as Oklfieldia africana, Benth. & Hook., with digitate 

 leaves and a 3-celled loculicidal capsule, and is doubtfully classed under EupJior- 

 biaceoe: Joh. Muller (Prodr. xv. ii. 1259) refers it to Sapindacece. 



1. EUPHORBIA, Linn. 



Herbs, shrubs, or small soft-wooded trees with fleshy branches abound-, 

 ing in milky juice. Leaves of the stem alternate, without stipules, or with 

 stipular spines, in some species opposite and stipulate, those of the flower- 

 ing branches opposite. Flower-heads resembling single flowers, consisting 

 of a calyx-like cup-shaped involucre, with 4-5 teeth, alternating with as 

 many large horizontal glands, which encloses 10-15 male and 1 central 

 female flower. Male fl. : one 2-celled, often didymous anther on an arti- 

 culated filament. Female fl. : a stipitate, 3-celled ovary, protruding from 

 the involucre, style 3-cleft, the branches 2-lobed. Numerous fimbriate 

 bracts often between the male flowers, the outer ones sometimes adnate 

 to the involucre. Capsule separating into three 2-valved cocci. 



Besides numerous annual and perennial herbs, this genus comprises in 

 India a number of shrubs or small trees with fleshy steins, which should be 

 noticed here. In the following the characters are given by which the species 



