128 SPUKGE FAMILY 



Hypocrite. Wild Poinsettia (Genus Poinsettia) 



The cultivated poinsettia, which ornaments Florida 

 gardens, has among our wild flowers two humble relatives 

 known by the amusing name of hypocrite, a name that 

 may possibly be due to the fact that the flowers are in- 

 conspicuous, and bright color is shown only in the leaf-like 

 bracts surrounding them. The cultivated poinsettia bears 

 small green flowers in terminal clusters encircled by flam- 

 ing bracts, and the wild poinsettias show the same char- 

 acteristics on a reduced scale. These hypocrites are not 

 uncommon on roadsides leading out from towns of south- 

 ern Florida, and are occasionally seen in other parts of 

 the state. The two wild species are readily distinguished 

 by their leaves, as those of P, havanensis are long and 

 narrow, and those of P. heterophylla are oblong, or flddle- 

 shaped, or roundish, in various forms. 



Weeds 



Several small euphorbias are common weeds of culti- 

 vated and waste grounds. These are of spreading growth, 

 and have a milky sap, small leaves, inconspicuous flowers, 

 and tiny capsules. Like the poinsettias, the flowers are 

 in clusters in small cup-shaped involucres, whose borders, 

 in some species, have small petal-like appendages. Eii^ 

 phorbia hrasiliensis has wiry reddish stems, smooth, ob- 

 long, dark green opposite leaves, and tiny flower-clusters 

 in the leaf-axils. E. pilulifera has pubescent reddish 

 leaves, and dense flower-clusters that are short-stalked 

 or almost sessile in the leaf-axils. E, polyphylla, more 

 often seen in pinelands, has very numerous narrow, gray- 

 green leaves, less than an inch long, and terminal clusters 

 of flowers whose involucres are bordered by white or pink 

 appendages that have the appearance of tiny petals. 



Tragia linearifolm has narrow alternate leaves, minute 

 flowers in slender racemes, and hairy reddish capsules. 



