374 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 



at the upper end (see p. 268) ; raphe ventral, micro- 

 pyle facing upwards and outwards. Embryo straight 

 with two thin flat cotyledons, surrounded by oily 

 endosperm. 



CODI^EUM VARIEGATUM, BL, the common Indian 

 Croton, grown in all gardens of South Indian plains,, 

 for the almost infinite diversity of its foliage. 



Flowers unisexual, monoecious, the staminate and 

 ovary flowers being sometimes on the same, sometimes 

 on separate racemes of the same plant. Staminate 

 flower with five sepals imbricate in bud, five small 

 fringed petals, inside and alternating with these last 

 five round yellow glands, and on the convex thalamus 

 many stamens with two-celled anthers (which in 

 CODI^UM becomes later on confluent at the top), 

 Ovary flower with five small green imbricate sepals, 

 no petals, a five-lobed yellow disc, and an ovary of 

 three cells with three styles, with in each cell one 

 ovule attached to the inner (axile) angle, near the top, 

 and pendulous with ventral raphe ; cells of the ovary 

 splitting apart in fruit, as three one-celled cocci. 

 Seed with a fleshy aril at the micropyle end, and a 

 straight embryo imbedded in endosperm. 



CHARACTERS OF THE EUPHORBIACE^) 



In its alternate simple leaves, its small inconspicuous 

 flowers, their unisexual nature, and in the three- (two 

 to four)-celled ovary containing pendulous seeds with 

 ventral raphe, CODLEUM is typical of the EUPHOR- 

 BIACE^E. The family is divided into two main groups, 

 according to whether there are two, or only one ovule 

 in each cell of the ovary. 



