. A dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns. Botany. E UPHORBIA CEAE 257 Link is very similar and resembles Rhipsalis in Cactaceae. (2) E. xylopkylloides Brongn. has flattened shoots (cf. Phyllanthus § Xylo- phylla, and Epiphyllum in Cactaceae). (3) E. Caput-Medusae L. has a stout stock giving off a number of thinner branches at the top. These are covered with little cushion-like papillae, closely crowded, which are really 1. bases; the 1. proper is undeveloped. Many sp. show this structure. (4) E. matnillaris L. has a thorn in the axil of each cushion (=a metamorphosed ). If th
. A dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns. Botany. E UPHORBIA CEAE 257 Link is very similar and resembles Rhipsalis in Cactaceae. (2) E. xylopkylloides Brongn. has flattened shoots (cf. Phyllanthus § Xylo- phylla, and Epiphyllum in Cactaceae). (3) E. Caput-Medusae L. has a stout stock giving off a number of thinner branches at the top. These are covered with little cushion-like papillae, closely crowded, which are really 1. bases; the 1. proper is undeveloped. Many sp. show this structure. (4) E. matnillaris L. has a thorn in the axil of each cushion (=a metamorphosed ). If the cushions, as in the cacti, become 'fused ' we get a ridged stem, as is seen in (5! E. polygona Haw. (cf. Echinopsis cereiformis in Cactaceae), E. grandi- cornis and many others. Most of these sp. exhibit pairs of stout thorns which are the slips, of the abortive 1. By the two horizontal thorns one can tell one of these pi. from a cactus, which has a group of thorns. (6) E. melofonnis Ait- is nearly spherical but ribbed, whilst in (7) E. globosa Sims (cf. Echinocactus) we have an almost perfect sphere. [Cf. Cactaceae, and Stapelia, and compare all these succulent forms with one another. See also Goebel, loc. cit.~\ Besides the above, note E. splendens Boj and E. Bojeri Hook., pi. with thick stems and green 1., the latter dropped in the dry season. The other chief point of interest in E. is the cyathium, or infl. condensed to simulate a single fl. The resemblance is almost perfect. The general branching of the plant is cymose (dichasial). The partial infl. forms a cyathium by the non-development of its internodes, the absence of the P of the individual fls. and the reduction of each 3 fl. to one sta. There is a perianth-like organ of 5 L, really bracts, and between these are 4 curious horn-like bodies (U-shaped in fig.), which are the combined slips, of the bracts. Then follow a number of sta. arranged with the oldest nearest to the centre and each with a peculiar joint half-w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1919
