Kuphorbla.] CXVII. EUPHOEBIACEiE. 1401 



female calyx 3, very short, oval or roundish ; styles free, undivided. Capsule 

 about 4 lines diameter, smooth, nearly globular ; seeds globular, about 2 lines 

 diameter ; testa brownish, smooth, no conspicuous arillus ; embryo narrow. 

 Cotyledons cordate-orbicular. 



Hab.: On rocks, Waiwier Island, about 10 miles west of Thursday Island. — Tf. Bauerhn. 



This cactus-like Euphorbia might be systematically placed near E. aphylla. 



18. £. '"Peplus (old Greek name), Linn.; Boiss. in DC. Prod. xv. ii. 141. 

 A glabrous annual plant of 3 to 9in. in height. Leaves below the flowering 

 branches alternate, membranous, roundish, tapering into the petiole, very blunt, 

 entire, smooth. Inflorescence dichotomous, the primary branches forming an 

 umbel of about 8 rays, the floral leaves opposite without stipules ; involucral 

 glands crescent-shaped, without petal-like appendages, Capsule glabrous, 

 smooth ; seeds pitted. 



Hab.: This European weed is now common in many gardens. 



19. E. '''heterophylla (various leaved), Linn. A shrub of short duration, 



2 to 8£t. high, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves variously lobed, the bract 

 ones .blotched with scarlet. Involucres pedicellate, with 5 incised lobes ; glands 

 cyathiform. — Poinsettia cyailioplwra, Boiss. 



Hab.: South America. This plant is straying from garden culture. 



2. PORANTHERA, Rudge, 

 (Anthers opening by pores.) 

 Flowers monoecious. Male flower : Calyx petal-like, deeply divided into 5 

 segments imbricate in the bud. Petals 6, small or occasionally deficient, with a 

 small gland at the base of each. Stamens 5, opposite the calyx-segments; 

 anther-cells completely divided, forming 4 distinct cells opening in terminal 

 pores either quite distinct or at length confluent into 2. Eudimentary ovary of 



3 small clavate or membranous bodies. Female flowers: Calyx and petals of the 

 males. Stamens 0. Ovary broad, flat or concave at the top, 6-lobed, 3-celled, 

 wiih 2 ovules in each cell. Styles 3, divided to the base into 2 linear branches. 

 Capsule depressed globular, opening in 3 loculieidal valves or separating into 

 3 2-valved cocci, the valves usually separating more readily than the cocci, the 

 whole falhng away leaving a persistent clavate axis. Seeds strongly reticulate. 

 Embryo terete, curved, the cotyledons not broader than the radicle. — Herbs 

 either annual or after the first year becoming suffrutescent. Leaves alternate, 

 membranous, entire, narrow or small. Stipules small, acuminate. Flowers 

 small, white, in very short dense racemes almost contracted into beads, each one 

 in the axil of a floral leaf or bract, the head-like racemes solitary or more 

 frequently several in a terminal leafy corymb. 



The genua is limited to Australia. 



,1. P. microphylla, (leaves small), Bronijn. in Dupen: Voy. Coq. Bot. 218, 

 t. 50 B. ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vi. 56. A low diffuse glabrous slender annual, 

 sometimes becoming hard at the base, the branches ascending to from 3 to 6in. 

 Leaves from linear-spathulate to obovate, obtuse, tapering into a rather long 

 petiole, flat or with the margins slightly recurved, J to Jin. long or sometimes 

 longer when narrow or scarcely 2 lines long when obovate. Flower-heads in 

 small very leafy corymbs, the outer floral leaves usually exceeding the flowers. 

 Flowers minute, the petals very variable, sometimes fully half as long as the 

 calyx, sometimes some or all much smaller or entirely deficient. After the 

 flowers have fallen the rhachis is often much elongated. — Maell. Arg. in DC. 

 Prod. XV. ii. 193 ; Klotzsch in PI. Preiss. ii. 230 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 848 ; 

 P. Druimnondii, Klotzsch, I.e., 281. 



Hab.: Sandy Cape and Keppel Bay, R. Brown; Port Curtis, 31'Gillivray ; Endea\our Eiver, 

 A. Cunninghum ; Brisbane Kiver, Prentice. A very common plant. 



