236 EUPHOEBIACEAE. 



29. POINSETTIA K. Graham, Edin. N. Phil. Jour. 20: 412. 1836. 



Herbs, rarely shrubs, the inflorescence clustered at the tips of the branches, 

 often subtended by highly colored leaves, the leaves alternate below, opposite 

 above, the blades similar throughout or very various in form. Involucral lobes 

 fimbriate; glands sarcous, concave, saucer-, cup- or goblet-shaped, solitary or 

 rarely 3 or 4, marginal, exappendiculate. Capsule exserted, its cocci rounded; 

 seed narrowed upw r ard, generally tuberculate, ecarunculate or with a mere in- 

 dication of a caruncular body. [In honor of Joel Eoberts Poinsette of South 

 Carolina.] About 12 species, mostly American. Type species: Euphorbia 

 pulcherrima Willd. 



1. Poinsettia heterophylla (L.) Kl. & Gke. Monats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 253. 

 1859. 



Euphorbia heterophylla L. Sp. PI. 453. 1753. 



Euphorbia havanensis Willd.; Boiss. in DC. Prodr. 15: 73, as synonym. 



1862. 

 Euphorbia graminifolia Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 210. 1803. 



Annual or perennial, bright green, pubescent or nearly glabrous, mostly 

 erect, 3-10 dm. tall, woody below; branches ascending or the lower often 

 spreading, leafy at the ends. Leaves various even on the same stem, from 

 linear through all shapes to orbicular, entire, dentate, sinuate or even panduri- 

 form; involucre-lobes ovate or oblong, laciniate; gland 1, sessile, exappendicu- 

 late; seeds ovoid-oblong, pointed, grayish, 2.8 X 2 mm., minutely and irregularly 

 tuberculate in more or less transverse lines. 



Good soil of grassy places and cultivated fields, Abaco and Great Bahama south- 

 ward to Grand Turk : Bermuda ; Illinois to Montana and southward through the 

 American tropics ; West Indies. JACOB'S LADDER. GOVERNOR GRANT'S LIVERY. 



30. AKLEMA Eaf. Fl. Tellur. 4: 114. 1838. 



Shrubby or rarely herbaceous, the branches jointed. Leaves equilateral, 

 entire, penninerved, cuneate at the base, ternate or verticillate (sometimes 

 opposite), long-petioled ; stipules glanduliform. Cymes axillary and terminal, 

 corymbose or paniculate (rarely reduced to a single involucre), the terminal 

 involucres generally hermaphrodite, often many-flowered; glands of the invo- 

 lucre appendiculate ; bracteoles between the male flowers numerous, plumose. 

 Capsule depressed, deeply trisulcate; seeds irregularly serobiculate, ecaruncu- 

 late. [Greek, not explained.] A few species of tropical America. Type 

 species: Euphorbia nudiflora Jacq. 



1. Aklema petiolare (Sims) Millsp. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 2: 43. 1915. 



Euphorbia petiolaris Sims, Bot. Mag. pi. 883. 1805. 



Alectoroctonum petiolare Kl. & Gke. Monats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 248. 

 1859. 



Shrubby or tree-like and 7 m. high., the branches glabrous, swollen at the 

 nodes. Leaves ternate, ovate or orbicular, 1-1.5 cm. long, truncate or almost 

 peltate at the base, obtuse or slightly emarginate, entire; the petiole slender, 

 twice or more the lengith of the blade; inflorescence subtrifloral, shorter than 

 the leaves; involucres long-pedicelled (6-10 mm.), hemispheric, smooth; lobes 

 ovate, short-fimbriate ; glands transverse, ovate, stipitate; styles divaricate, 

 bifid, not thickened at the apex; capsule smooth; cocci obtusely carinate; 



