Ill 



annual herbs, often containing a poisonous juice, elastic resin, 

 or watery juice : leaves alternate, rarely opposite or verticil- 

 late, petioled or sessile, usually bistipulate at the base, almost 

 always simple, seldom trifoliolate : limb entire or toothed or 

 lobed, penninerved or palmatinerved : inflorescence axillary 

 or terminal, definite or indefinite, variously arranged. 



&ENUS I. EFPHOEBIA. 



Dodecandria Trigynia. Sex : Syst : 



Deriv. Named after Euphorbus, physician to Juba, king of 

 Mauritania, who is said to have first appUed the plants medi- 

 cinally. 



Gen. Chab. Involucre somewhat regular, campanulate, turbi- 

 nate or hemispherical, 5 primary lobes membranaceous, 5 secon- 

 dary ones alternating with the first and glanduliferous : male 

 flowers pedicelled, ecalyculate, furnished at the base with cihated- 

 lacerated bracteoles, arranged in 5 rows opposite the primary 

 lobes of the involucre : female flower central, pedicelled, supported 

 by the 3 — 6-lobed calyx, usually ecalyculate : styles 3, distinct or 

 more or less united, 2-cleft : lobes stigmatose at the apex or inner 

 side : seeds pendulous, with or without a wart. — Monoecious, very 

 rarely dioeceous plants, consisting of herbs, shrubs and trees : 

 leaves scattered and opposite, seldom verticillate, stipulate or 

 exstipulate, floral ones opposite or ternate : inflorescence definite 

 cymose, cymes axillary or terminal, 2 — 5-tomous, often arranged 

 in a false umbel, sometimes unilateral by abortion, racemiform, 

 spiciform, or reduced to a solitary involucre : leaves at the base 

 of the umbel verticillate : involucres usually enclosing the males 

 as well as the female flower : glands of the involucre somewhat 

 stalked, thickish, fleshy, usually horizontal or inclining outwardly, 

 commonly broader than long, flat or concave, rounded or truncated 

 at the outer margin, semilunate, 2-horned, occasionally increased 

 by a membranaceous appendage : male flowers varying in number, 

 rows or fascicles radiately arranged, very often indistinguishable 

 from the mutual compression of flowers and bracts : pedicel of 

 the female flower exserted after fruiting, again erect after the 

 ripening of the capsule : capsule smooth or warty, the two valvelets 

 of the shell elastic : seeds crustaceous, variously tubercled, 

 wrinkled or furrowed, clothed with a very thin aril, often expanded 

 into a wart at the top of the seed : cotyledons linear, more or less 

 ovate. 



