1859. Gnidia eriocephaea (Meisner, Gardner),
shrubby, branches dichotomous, young shoots leafy:
leaves alternate, short petioled, lanceolate, acute,
mucronate; slightly tapering towards the base, glab- -
rous on both sides: heads of flowers terminal, many-
flowered, involucrate: scales of the involucre ovato-
lanceolate, acute; silky pubescent on both sides:
flowers pentamerous, clothed with long white hairs.
A common plant in alpine and sub-alpine jungle.
It is very common on the Neilgherries, but I have
met with it in many localities; it is also a native of
Ceylon, and I think of the Tenasserim Provinces.
Professor Meisner described this plant, under the
'• same name previous to Mr. Gardner, I therefore give
' him as the original authority for the name, but adopt
f Gardner’s character, as being constructed to distin-
i guish it from another which Meisner had not seen.
1860. Gnidia Sisparensis (Gardner), sub-arbo-
! reous, branches dichotomous, young shoots glabrous,
[ leafy at the apex: leaves alternate, sub-sessile, ob-
[ long, obtuse or slightly retuse, glabrous on both sides:
i heads of flowers terminal, many-flowered, involucrate:
; scales of the involucre ovate oblong, obtuse, silky-
villous on both sides: flowers pentamerous, clothed
: externally with long brownish hairs.
Sisparah, Western slopes of Neilgherries, on the
margins of woods, common. In its general aspect
' this plant is so like the other that it might be passed
as such, but on closer examination it proves a very
; distinct species. The point that first attracted my
:■ attention was the difference in the colour of the hairs
of the heads of flowers, tawny brown in this, almost
1 snow-white in th a t: further examination showed
; many other minute differences.
i 1861. Cansjera R heedh (Gmelin) shrubby, scan-
dent, young shoots velvety: leaves short petioled,
, broad ovato-lanceolate, acute, glabrous, somewhat
succulent: spikes axillary or paired, compact: rachis
; and tube of the calyx densely clothed with short
appressed hairs: calyx 4-5-cleft, stamens 4-5 : sta-
; “ modes fleshy, somewhat 3-toothed at the ap ex :
; fruit oval, about the size of a common bean.
. Pjanf here_ figured is not by any means rare
[ Si koathern India, and is evidently the same as
[ ^heede s, Hort. Mai. 7-t. 2, but possibly not the
■ ^ ^ ^ A r g h ’s C. scandens, for which he quotes
t uw‘t- Mai. 7-t. 4. as most correctly representing it,
remarking, at the same time, that the other, “ 7 tab. 2,
appears to be the same plant.” My impression is
i t lafc ™ey are distinct species.
\ „ J S f remark applies to the plate only, for I have
l in . Ascription by me for reference. However that
Ap® justice ■will in future be done to
jmenn by the adoption of his name which, so far as
: itq ma*e can °Am 7 or 8 years priority in
fhere are however 2 species in India,
h Il;h fruit about the size of the common horse-
■ i1fl_. ’ su®h .as are here represented, and the other,
f r 2 H as large as a full-sized olive. The
latfn,.1 w- tae Camjera scandens of Roxburgh, the
I riivi ’ "r*”*.ereea olacioides, W. & A. Unfortunately
urintna0t x!sc°ver this until long after the plate was
eh • °iherwise both forms might have been in-
or lfc’ .The plant and flowers seem the same,
most on 111 h°th, the fruit only differs, and that
sfructineSPiC110IlSly’ iu size’ and to some extent in
When naming the drawing I inadvertently referred
this genus to Thyrtudece, the order in which it was
formerly placed, instead of to Olacineee, the one to
which it really belongs.
The part represented at fig. 8 of the plate, is a
group of young fruit, and is quite correctly shown,
with the exception of the hairs, which do not belong
to them. They have the appearance of some taken
from a pod of Mucuna, or capsule of a Stercidea
which had adhered to them in the vasculum, and
which, through the carelessness of the artist, are introduced
as if part of the plant.
E uphorbiaceie.
This, though a very large order (200 genera and
about 2500 species) and complex in its affinities, is
yet one which may be said to be generally easily
recognized by the almost constant presence of a few
easily-observed marks.'
The flowers are very constantly unisexual, or in
other words the stamens and pistil are in different
flowers. The ovary is about as constantly 3-celled,
with the ovules—one or two—pendulous from the top
of the cell. The seed moreover are generally albuminous.
I t may, perhaps will, be objected to the first of
these that, in Euphorbia, the type of the order, the
flowers are bisexual, or have both male and female
flowers within the same calyx. This is apparent,
not real, the supposed calyx being a cup-shaped involucre,
each stamen within which is a distinct male
flower, and, as inthose of a sun-flower or other Com-
posita, they open in succession, never more than
two or three being apparent at the same time, though
the involucre is full of others progressively pushing
to the light. They for the most part have each one
or more bracts at the base of the pedicel, and in some
species a rudimentary calyx at the joint where the
pedicel ends and the flower begins. The same is the
case _ with the fructiferous flower which is at first
within the cup, then the pedicel gradually elongates
until the ovary and styles, which in fact constitute
the whole female flower, appear beyond it. Sometimes
however it, too, has a distinct though rudimentary
calyx, as shown in the following plates.
That this explanation, of the economy of these
curious flowers, is not a case of stretching a point to
support a fanciful theory may be learned from the
Fig, which is just such another involucre, covered
inside with flowers: females below; males round the
apex. The Rose, too, furnishes an example of the
same kind, the hip or fruit of which is an involucre
studded all over with female flowers, each having its
own style, which, protruding beyond the throat of
the involucre, mixes with the exterior stamens and
thereby fertilizes the ovary within.
The numerous genera of the order are grouped into
tribes, first according to the number of ovules in each
cell of the ovary, and then according to the greater
or less perfection of the flowers.
The following are the essential characters of the
“ Tribes,” which I copy from Lindley’s Vegetable
Kingdom.
1st. E uphorbie2e. Ovule solitary. Seeds albuminous.
Flowers monoecious, apetalous, male and
female mixed in a cup-shaped involucre.