PLATE DCXVII. 



EUPHORBIA ineloformis. 

 Melon-shaped Euphorbia. 



CLASS XL ORDER IIL 



DODECANDRIA TRIGYNIA. Twelve to Nineteen Stamens. Three Styles. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Calyx monophyllus, ventricosus. Corolla 4- 

 seu 5-petala calyci insidens. Capsula tri- 

 Wb. cocca. 



Cup of one leaf, bellying. Blosscm of 4 or 5 

 petals sitting upon the cup. Fruit a capsule 

 with 3 cells. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 

 Euphorbia subglobosa multangularis. j| Euphokbia nearly round with many angles. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1 . A flower spread open. 



2. A chive magnified. 



Those who are unacquainted with the versatility of this extraordinary Genus will be a little surprised 

 at seeing a plant with so little resemblance to that on our last plate under the same generic appellation. 

 Even the variations of Protea itself appear trifling, when compared with those of Euphorbia, which in- 

 cludes species with leaves opposite, alternate, scattered, whorled, and imbricated, and others leafless, like 

 the present ; plants round, oval, square, triangular and oblong ; annual, herbaceous, succulent, thorny, 

 woody, and even arboreous ; and natives of all climates, from Siberia to Dusky Bay. Almost all the 

 species i'gree in being replete with a milky juice which flows from them freely when wounded, and is 

 generally of an acrid corrosive quality. An excellent description of the Euphorbia meloformis was 

 given in the second volume of the Hortus Kewensis, and has been since copied into the Species Plan- 

 tarum. An engraving and description of it by Mons. Desfontaines, one of the professors in the Museum 

 of Natural History at Paris, also ornaments the first volume of their Annales. The species is dioicous ; 

 and, except in the Royal Gardens at Kew, male flowers only have as yet been produced by the plants 

 cultivated in this country, and their progeny at Paris. The stamens come to maturity at different times, 

 those of the centre being the earliest, the woolly filaments of which persisting after the antherae are 

 fallen oflFgive to the flowers a singular appearance. The species is a native of Africa towards the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and was introduced by AJr. Masson in I77*i> but is still very scarce, and requires to be 

 kept in the dry stove or on a shelf in the hot- house, much moisture being always inimical to it. The 

 propagation is by separating the young bulbs from their parent stock, and planting them in pots of earth 

 nearly dry, as they retain their vegetative powers for months without either earth or water. 



