176 



EUPHORBIACEAE. 



Securinega. 

 (Family Euphorbiaceae). 



Small shrubs: deciduous. Twigs 

 slender, 5-sided, glabrous: pith 

 relatively large, angular, white, 

 continuous. Buds rather small, 

 solitary or with a small lower one, 

 compressed-ovoid, with about 3 

 exposed scales. Leaf-scars alter- 

 nate, minute, half-round, slightly 

 raised: bundle-trace 1: stipules 

 subpersistent at the sides. Most 

 of the upper axils are occupied 

 by scars from which flower- and 

 fruit-clusters have fallen. Some- 

 times called Acidoton. 



Though a number of large and 

 important or interesting trees be- 

 longing to the Euphorbiaceae oc- 

 cur in the tropics, and poinset- 

 tias, crotons and castor beans are 

 frequent among herbaceous plants 

 grown in temperate regions, An- 

 drachne and Securinega, which are scarcely more than half- 

 shrubs, are the only woody genera found native or cultivated 

 in the North. 



Twigs olive-colored or green. (1). S. ramiflora. 



Twigs purple. S. flueggeoides. 



Shirasawa gives winter-characters of Excoecaria japonica, 

 245, pi. 4; Glochidion obovatum, 253, pi. 6; Mallotus japonica, 

 234, pi. 1; and Stillingia sebifera, 244. These genera belong 

 likewise to the Euphorbiaceae. 



