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annual herb common in gardens, with the leaves 

 embracing the cymes spotted scarlet near the base, 

 but green towards the apex; Crotons, tropical shrubs 

 with monoecious flowers commonly cultivated in 

 gardens for their mottled green, yellow, and red 

 leaves; khirui {Euphorbia thymifolia, E. pilulifera, E. 

 microphylla), the common name of roadside prostrate 

 weeds which are distinguished popularly as swet or 

 white khirui, barha or large khirui, and chhota or 

 small khirui; Homonoia 

 ripan'a, an evergreen 

 shrub of rocky river beds. 

 The genus Euphorbia 

 (Spurges) has a char- 

 acteristic inflorescence 

 known as cyathium. It 

 is composed of many 

 small male flowers, each , 

 consisting of a single 

 stamen with a jointed 

 filament, and a solitary 

 female flower, consisting 



of a 3-celled ovary with a jointed pedicel, the flowers 

 being enclosed in a 4- to 5-lobed cup-like, often 

 coloured involucre, which beginners are likely to 

 mistake for a perianth enclosing the stamens and the 

 single pistil, as if the inflorescence were a single 

 flower with a perianth, many stamens, and i pistil. 

 This is apparent from a consideration of the fact that 

 the stamens and the pistils have each a jointed stalk 

 which in some allied genera is provided with a rudi- 

 mentary or hairy perianth at the joint. The in- 

 volucre has at its indentations glands which secrete 

 exposed nectar. The flowers are protogynous. The 

 3 bi-lobed stigmas emerge first from the involucre. 



Figf. 338. — Mukta-jhuri or swet-basanta 

 {AcalyfiJia ittifirn) 



