136 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



R. COMMUNIS L. Castor Bean. Annual, becoming a tree in 

 the tropics; stem smootli and glaucous, 6-12 ft. high; leaves large, 

 often 1 ft. broad, peltate, palmately G-12-lobed, the lobes lanceolate 

 irregularly toothed, petioles long, glandular ; stipules large, decidu- 

 ous; panicles in the forks of the stem, dense; capsules very spiny, 

 ^-| in. long; seeds oval, smooth, mottled. June-October. Intro- 

 duced from India. 



11. JATROPHA. 



Shrubs or herbs ; leaves alternate ; flowers monoecious, 

 staminate and pistillate intermixed in the cymes, apetalous : 

 calyx large, white, 5-lobed, corolla-like ; stamens numerous, 

 usually nionadelphous ; ovary usually 3-celled, 3-seeded, styles 

 3, united at the base, several-parted. 



J. STiMULOSA Michx. Spurge Nettle. Perennial herbs armed 

 with stinging hairs; stems erect, branched, bright green with white 

 lines, 8-15 in. high; leaves long-petioled, deeply palmately 3-5- 

 lobed, the lobes irregularly cut and toothed, often mottled; sepals 

 white, spreading; seeds oblong, smooth, mottled. April-September. 

 In dry woods. 



III. EUPHORBIA. 



Herbs with milky juice ; inflorescence cymose ; flowers 

 monoecious, without calyx or corolla, usually 1 pistillate and 

 several monandrous staminate flowers are surrounded by 

 cup-like involucre resembling a corolla, and often gland-bear- 

 ing between its 4-5 lobes ; styles 3, each 2-cleft ; capsule 

 stipitate, 3-celled, 3-seeded. 



1. E. MACULATA L. SPOTTED Spurge. Annual; stem pros- 

 trate, widely branched, pubescent, 1-12 in. long; leaves opposite, 

 stipulate, short-petioled, oblong, oblique at the base, serrate, usually 

 blotched with purple ; involucres small, and mostly near the ends of 

 the branches; glands 4, cup-shaped, their appendages white; cap- 

 sule ovoid, pubescent, seed 4-angied, faintly wrinkled and pitted. 

 June-October. Very common in waste places. 



2. E. COROLLATA L. FLOWERING Spurge. Perennial; stem 

 erect, umbellately branched above, smooth or pubescent, 1-3 ft. 

 high; leaves of the stem alternate, those of the branches usually 

 opposite or whorled, rather thick, oval to narrowly oblong, pale 

 beneath, usually slightly pubescent; flowering branches repeatedly 

 forked ; involucres terminal and in the forks of the branches, pedun- 



