Synadenium
(from syn, united, and aden, a gland; the glands of the involucre are united in a cup or disk). African Milk-bush. ORD. Euphorbiaceae. A small genus (two or three species) of slightly fleshy, terete-branched, stove shrubs, natives of South and tropical East Africa. Flowers rather inconspicuous, in terminal, loosely corymbose, bi-or trichotomously-branched, cymes; involucre campanulate, regular, five-lobed, five-glanded, seated on a flat-concave cupule; males (on separate cymes) from twenty to thirty in five fascicles; females solitary, with bifid, recurved stigmas. Leaves scattered, obovate, entire, rather thick. Only one species has been introduced. It thrives in a thoroughly well-drained, sandy loam, with the addition of a little well-rotted cow-dung. Propagation may be effected by cuttings, thoroughly dried at the base, inserted in sand, and occasionally very slightly moistened.
S. Grantii (Captain Grant's). fl. red-purple; involucre 1/4in. in diameter; pedicels purplish; cymes axillary, corymbosely branched, 6in. to 8in. long, green; bracts appressed. November. l. 3in. to 4in. long, obtuse, not very succulent, dark green above, paler below. Stem stout, terete. h. 6ft. to 10ft. Central Africa, 1867. (B. M. 5633.)