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POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA. 



(Showy Poinsettia.) 



LINNEAN SYSTEM. NATURAL ORDER. 



MONffiCIA MONANDRIA. EUPHORBIACE45. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Poinsettia (Graham). Involucrum monophyllum, androgynum, basi 5-loculare, extus 

 appendiculatum, nectariferum. Flores pedicellati, nudi ; masculi bifariam in singulis loculis, 

 monandri : foeminei solitarii, germen trilobum, ovulum solitarium singulis lobis. 



Involucre of one leaf, containing barren and fertile flowers, 5-celled at the base, with a 

 nectariferous appendage on the outside. Flowers with foot-stalks, naked ; male flowers in two 

 rows in each cell, monandrous : female flowers solitary, germen 3-lobed, ovule solitary in each lobe. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



P. pulcherrima. — Graham in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 

 Euphorbia Pulcherrima. — Willd. Herb. ! 

 Euphorbia Poinsettiana. — Buist. MSS. 



Descr. — Shrub erect, ramous ; branches round, young shoots bluntly four-angled, green, 

 glabrous, hollow. Leaves scattered, occasionally opposite, spreading, petiolate, ovato-elliptical, 

 subacute, sinuated, veined, soft and pubescent on both sides, bright green above, paler below ; 

 petioles furrowed above ; bractece similar in shape to the leaves, but aggregated at the extre- 

 mities of the branches, and of splendid vermilion colour, paler below ; cymes terminal, subtrifid, 

 at length falling off at a joint in the common footstalk ; involucres on short, stout foot-stalks, 

 articulated at the base, green, ovato-orbicular, toothed, marked by five sutures on the outside, 

 with which alternate on the inside, five falcated processes, beginning with narrow extremities at 

 the mouth of the involucre, and, adhering to this with their backs, they become gradually 

 broader below, passing inwards, and attached to an elevation in the centre, they divide the lower 

 part of the involucre into five distinct cells, and supporting on their edges erect fimbriae, they 

 divide the upper part also, but less completely ; teeth of the involucre numerous, coloured like 

 the bractese, woolly on the inside, connivent ; appendage single, on the outside of the involucre 

 towards the axis of the cyme, round, entire, peltate, folded in the middle so as to appear two- 

 lipped, nectariferous ; four yellow teeth placed round the mouth of the involucre are abortive 

 appendages. Male flowers about fourteen, in two rows in each loculament and rising from its 

 base, erect, petiolate, naked, monandrous, mixed with chaffs (abortive male flowers ?) which are 

 woolly at the apex, and occasionally tinged red there ; petioles colourless, as long as the 

 involucre ; filament red ; anthers two-lobed ; lobes divaricated, so that those which are next each 

 other in the two rows overlap, opening at a deep furrow along their outside ; pollen-granules 



