Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/667

Euphorbia.] like involucre). Perianth generally simple and calycine, but often wanting, rarely double, the inner of 4–5 minute petals. Stamens 1 to many; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, of 3 (rarely 2 or more than 3) united carpels; styles as many as the carpels, free or united, entire or divided; ovules 1 or 2 to each carpel, pendulous from the inner angle of the cell. Fruit either a capsule of 2-valved 1–2-seeded cocci separating from a persistent axis, or a 1–3-celled drupe, or of 1 or more combined nuts. Seed laterally attached at or above the middle of the cell; embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen, cotyledons flat, radicle superior.

Herbs or shrubs abounding in milky juice. Inflorescence of numerous males and a single female flower crowded in a small cup-shaped 4–5-lobed calyx-like involucre, the lobes usually alternating with as many fleshy glands, which often possess a white or coloured spreading limb. Male flowers consisting of a pedicelled stamen without floral envelopes of any kind; anther-cells globose. Female flower central in the involucre, of a long-pedicelled 3-celled ovary, also without floral envelopes; styles 3; ovules solitary in each cell. Capsule 3-lobed, splitting into 3 2-valved cocci, which fall away from a persistent axis.