EUPHOKBIACE^. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 451 



what cuspidate; fniit ovoid, larger (3-4'' long), sessile or on short stout pedi- 

 cels. — W. Miuu. to S. W. Kan., and westward. 



3. O. livida, Richardson. Peduncles slender, axillarij, Z-b-Jlowered. 

 sliorter than tlie oval leaves ; calyx-tube not continued beyond the ovary, the 

 lobes ovate; sti/le short; fruit pulpy when ripe, red. — Newf., N. Vt., sandy 

 shores of L. Superior, and northward. 



2, PYRULARIA, Michx. Oil-nut. Buffalo-xut. 



Flowers dioecious or polygamous. Calyx 4-5-cleft, the lobes recurved, 

 hairv-tufted at base in the male flowers. Stamens 4 or 5, on verv short fila- 

 ments, alternate with as many rounded glands. Fertile flowers with a pear- 

 shaped ovary invested by the adherent tube of the calyx, naked at the flat 

 summit ; disk with 5 glands ; style short and thick ; stigma capitate-flattened. 

 Fruit fleshy and drupe-like, pear shaped ; the globose endocarp thin. Embryo 

 small ; albumen very oily. — Shrubs or trees, with alternate short-petioled and 

 deciduous leaves; the small greenish flowers in short and simple spikes or 

 racemes. (Name a diminutive of Pi/rus, from the shape of the fruit.) 



1. P. pubera, Michx. Shrub straggling (3-12° high), minutely downy 

 when young, at length nearly glabrous; leaves obovate-oblong, acute or 

 pointed at both ends, soft, very veiny, minutely pellucid-punctate ; spike small 

 and few-flowered, terminal; calyx 5-cleft ; fruit T long. (P. oleifera, Graij.) 

 — Rich woods, mountains of Penn. to Ga. Whole plant, especially the fruit, 

 imbued with an acrid oil. 



Order 98. EUPHORBIACE^E. (Spurge Family.) 



Plants usually ivith a milky acrid juice, and moncecious or dlcecious Jloiv- 

 ers, mostly apetalous, sometimes achlamydeous (occasionally polypetalous or 

 rponopetalous) ; the ovary free and usually 3-celled, with a single or some- 

 times a pair of ovules hanging from the summit of each cell; stigmas or 

 branches of the style as many or twice as many as the cells ; fruit commonly a 

 &-lobed capsule, the lobes or carpels separating elastically from a persistent 

 axis and elastically 2-valved ; seed anatj^opous ; embryo straight, almost as 

 long as and the Jiat cotyledons mostlv as ivide as the fleshy or oily albumen. 

 Stipules often present. — A vast ^- .flily in the warmer parts of the world ; 

 most numerously represented in northern countries W the genus p]u= 

 phorbia, which has very reduced flowers within a calyx-like involucre. 



» Flowers all without calyx, included iu a cup-shaped (;alyx-like involucre, — the whole liable 

 to be mistaken for a single flower. 



1. Euphorbia. Involucre surrounding many staniinate flowers (each of a single naked 



stamen) and one pistillate flower (a 3-lobed pistil) 



* * Flowers with a calyx, without involucre, 

 -f- Seeds and ovules 2 in each cell ; flowers monoecious. 



2. Pacliysanclra. Flowers in basal spikes. Calyx 4-parted. Stamens 4, distinct. 



3. Phyllanthus. Flowers axillary. Stamens 3, united. 



H- -t- Seeds and ovules 1 in each cell. 

 a. Flowers apetalous, in cymose panicles (2-3-chotomous), stamens 10, erect in the bud. 



4. tJatropha. Calyx corolla-like, the staniinate salver-form ; armed with stinging hair$. 



