TRbooora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 12. April, 1910. 
EUPHORBIA CYPARISSIAS IN FRUIT. 
WALTER DEANE. 
DURING the thirty years covering my botanical experiences, I have 
never met with a patch of Euphorbia Cyparissias, L., a European 
species naturalized in North America, without examining it carefully 
in the hope of finding fruiting specimens exhibiting capsules and ripe 
seeds. My search was always in vain. The young developing ova ry 
protruded a short distance from the involucre and gave promise of 
fruition, but that was all. It bent over the edge of the cup and with- 
ered away. I was quite used to my repeated failures, as year after vear 
went by, and I became reconciled to leaving forever on my desiderata 
list the fruit of this species. A joyful surprise, however, was in store 
for me, and the long waiting was quite worth the keen satisfaction that 
followed. 
It was in the summer of 1909 when I was visiting my friends, Mr. 
and Mrs. Gilbert N. McMillan on their large estate in Shelburne, New 
Hampshire, in the valley of the Androscoggin River, a few miles north- 
east of the White Mountains and between 700 and 800 feet above 
sea level. On the afternoon of July 1, the day after my arrival, as a 
party of us were strolling near the house, I observed a patch of Eu- 
phorbia Cyparissias by the roadside. I stepped up to it, as was my 
custom, to examine it, and to my delight every plant was loaded with 
dead-ripe capsules. It was a joy indeed. The situation was on a dry 
bank of poor soil, some three feet above the level of the road and spar- 
ingly covered with grass. For the first time I saw the granular pods 
and smooth grayish seeds of this species.! 
1 In view of the conflicting statements as to the color of the seeds of Euphorbia 
Cyparissias, Gray’s Manual, in recent editions, calling them ‘ dark-colored,” and 
57 
