Carn Se eT nee aRSn EEE ERROR 
increases in length, as the capsule advances in size, becomes curved, and 
exceeds considerably the length of the involucre. Each lobe of the ger- 
men forms, when mature, a triangular, slightly punctated Coccus or Cap- 
sule, attached longitudinally to a central linear receptacle, from which it 
separates, bursting longitudinally with an elastic force, and flinging out 
a single ovate, but somewhat triangular, brown Seed. Within the seed is 
a fleshy albumen, and in the centre a cylindrical Embryo, with its radicle 
directed towards the hilum, : 
An inhabitant of the West Indies ;— cultivated in Britain 
so early as 1727, by Mr P. Mi_uer, and remarkable for the 
four pure white petal-like appendages to the involucre, which 
give to that part no very distant resemblance to the minute 
flower of some cruciferous plant. It blossoms in September in 
our stoves, and dies away annually, after yielding an abundance — 
of ripe seeds. We cultivated, in 1821, also from West Indian 
seeds, an individual very similar to this, but in which all the 
involucres were destitute of white processes, and its stem and 
leaves, especially beneath, were covered with short, rigid, ap- 
pressed hairs. | 7 
If Euphorbia hypericifolia be not deemed worthy of a 
place in this work, from the beauty of its flowers, it may de- 
serve it from the representation and explanation which I have 
given of the flower and inflorescence, which no botanist had 
rightly understood, till Mr Brown explained them in his va- | - 
luable Appendix to Captain FLINDERS’ work. No question — 
can now be entertained as to the propriety of removing this 
genus from the Class Dodecandria of the Linnean system, to 
Monecia. 'The joint in the supposed stamen, is, in fact, the 
line of separation where the pedicel terminates, and the naked 
stamen, here forming the entire male flower, begins. A simi- 
lar joint is visible at the insertion of the female flower, and 
in this situation Mr Browwn has, in some instances, disco- 
vered the rudiments of a 3-lobed perianth. 
Fig. 1. Involucre, with petal-like processes. Fig. 2. Involucre, destitute of 
the petal-like processes. Fig. 3. Involucre cut open, to shew the insertion 
of the numerous naked monandrous male flowers, and the single naked 
female flower, all pedicellated. Fig.4. Anther burst. Fig. 5. Involucre, 
with a ripe fruit. Fig. 6. Fruit, with one of its capsules, or cocci, sepa-— 
rating from the columella, and bursting to discharge the seed. Fig. 7. 
Seed. Fig. 8. Seed cut open longitudinally, to shew the Albumen and 
Embryo. Fig. 9. Stipule.—All very much magnified. 
