8 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



some species, like croton and castor oil, of great medicinal 

 value. Hence we sometimes hear them called milk-weeds, 

 but as a matter of fact, they are not related at all to the beau- 

 tiful genus Asclcpias. 



Let us look at our common cypress spurge {Euphorbia 

 cyparrissas), as a type. It is an introduced plant found in 

 old country cemeteries or on waysides near older houses. It 

 rarely wanders far away, but like the tawny day lily loves the 

 old home and colonial story. It grows in bunches or clusters, 

 generally less than a foot high, with numerous linear stem 

 leaves. Those nearer the flowers are heart-shaped. The flow- 

 ers are arranged in umbels. Let us look at one of these. 



Mark Twain used to say of Xew England weather, that 

 the observer and prophet was pretty confident till he came to 

 our borders, "Then see his tail drop!" A\'ith our spurge the 

 beginner is toplofty till he gets beyond the umbels, when, as 

 modern slang has it, he "wonders where he is at." What ap- 

 pear to be flowers consist of cup-shaped involucre, looking 

 like a calyx or corolla — and even so called by old authors. 

 This cup bears thick, yellowish glands in its notches. A\'ithin 

 the cup are two kinds of flowers — numerous male ones, con- 

 sisting each of a single stamen, with anther sessile on the 

 flower stalk — and jointed thereto. There are no floral en- 

 velopes at all. A single female flower, consisting only of a 

 three-celled ovary, on a long pedicel, projects from among 

 the staminate flowers, and like them, has neither calyx or 

 corolla. To resume, what appears to be a collection of single 

 flowers in an umbel, is a group of inflorescences each imitat- 

 ing a flower — and each consisting of many male and one 

 female blossoms. 



The joint in the flower-stalk shows where the calyx and 

 corolla should be, and where in certain confirmatory exotics 

 they really are. 



Let the reader now understand that we have described but 



