276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



purple dye known as turnsole. Nearly all the species have an 

 acrid milky juice. 



101. Petty Spdrge — Euphorbia Peplus Annual. Stem erect or ascending, five to 

 twelve inches high, becoming greatly branched. Leaves ovate, tapering towards the 

 short petioles, tliin. i^/owtrs greenish. iSVff/i- curiously sculptured with two longitudinal 

 grooves on the inner face, and four rows of little pits around the bacls, less than a twelfth 

 of an inch long. 



We fain would omit this pretty little plant from our general 

 denouncement of weeds, but our conscience will not permit us. 

 We must include it among the " devoted to destruction." We are 

 unacquainted with this leafless plant outside of our own flower 

 garden, where, a few years ago, it was introduced with some seeds, 

 and we permitted it to grow for a season on account of its beauty 

 — it has a truly elegant shade of green on its profuse foliage — and 

 its pleasing effect in boquets. We soon found, however, that we 

 were entertaining a very impertinent fellow — we had given it an 

 inch and it began to take an ell, in a most wholesale manner, for 

 some of our beds were completely covered by this saucy little 

 intruder. It is a native of Europe, and is said to be almost "rare" 

 in this country, and it is hoped that it will long remain so. We 

 nearly eradicated it by pulling the plants before they had ripened 

 .their seeds. 



102. Cypress Spurge — Euphorbia Cyparissias. Perennial with extensively creeping 

 ■Toot-stalks. Stem smooth, much branched, very leafy, six to twelve inches high. Leaves 



one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, one-twelfth of an inch wide, crowded. Flowers 

 yellowish green, becoming reddish. 



This, like the preceding, is an introduced species from Europe. 

 As yet it is not common. It spreads rapidly by its running root- 

 stalks, and should, therefore, be regarded with suspicion. It has 

 the character of a pernicious weed. As it delights in a dry sterile 

 soil it can, probably, be destroyed by high cultivation. 



Order 33. NETTLEWORTS — Urticace.e. A large order, 

 mostly tropical, comprising the elm, the plane tree, nettles, hops, 

 hemp, and the fig tree. 



103. Sri.NGiNG Nettlk — Vrtica dioica. Root perennial. Stem two to three feet high, 

 obtusely four-angled, clothed with stinging hairs. Leaves ovate, heart-shaped, two to 

 five inches long, on short stalks. Flowers small, green, in branching axillary clusters. 



It was a saying of that quaint old herbalist, Culpepper, that 

 "nettles might be found by feeling on the darkest night." There 

 are not a few who can testify to the truth of his remark. Nothing 



