EUPHORBIACEiE 255 



SANTALACE^ 

 Thesium L. Bastard Toadflax. 

 Flowers minute, hermaphrodite, sohtary and axillary or in cymes. 

 Calyx 3-5 lobed, persistent. Stamens 3-5, attached to the calyx. 

 Ovary i-celled. Fruit a i-celled, i-seeded achene. Leaves narrow, 

 entire, without stipules. Slender herbs parasitic on roots, of which 

 there are about 100 in the ancient world and in Brazil. 



Thesium alpinum L. (Plate VI.) 



Stem prostrate, branching on one side only, leafy from the base 

 upwards. Calyx rolled up at the tip after flowering, as long as or 

 longer than the fruit. Middle bract much longer than the two 

 lateral ones. 



Dry pastures and stony places in the Alps and sub-Alps up to 

 7500 feet. 



Distribution. — ^Eastern, Central, and Western Alps ; Western 

 and Northern Asia. 



There are 3 or 4 more species of Thesium found in the Alps, in- 

 cluding the British T. humifusum DC. They are all difficult to 

 determine, especially without ripe fruit. 



EUPHORBIACEiE 

 One of the largest families, with over 3000 species represented in 

 nearly every part of the world, except the Arctic regions. But 

 we are unaware of a single species which is purely Alpine. 



Euphorbia L. Spurge. 



Herbs, in European species, with the inflorescence composed 

 of many male and one female flower collected into a cluster, sub- 

 tended by bracts and glands which are often yellow and crescent- 

 shaped. Ovary 3 -celled, with 3 bifid stigmas. Seed-capsule 

 3-lobed. Many have a milky juice. 



About 650 species in the temperate and hot regions of both 

 worlds, especially abundant in the Mediterranean district. None 

 are truly Alpine. 



Euphorbia Cyparissias L. (Plate XX.) 



Stems 8-12 inches high, erect, reddish at the base, rising from a 

 stoloniferous root, and with numerous barren and flowering 

 branches. Leaves linear, setaceous and almost imbricate, glabrous. 

 Flowers yellow, often turning red in autumn, in a terminal umbel, 

 with a whorl of linear leaves at its base. Bracts broadly ovate- 

 triangular. Capsule 3 mm. long, trigonous, glabrous. 



Gravelly and stony places from the plains to the Alps, sometimes 

 seen as high as 9000 feet, and often very abundant in the lower 

 Alps. May to September. 



