EITPHORBIACE-ZE. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 407 
unequal at the base, slightly 3-ribbed, often purplish, or with a dark 
purple blotch on the upper side ; glands on small petal-like appenda¬ 
ges; fruit mostly rather hairy; seeds 4-angled, obscurely wrinkled 
transversely. (E. depressa, Torr.) — Gravelly banks and open pla¬ 
ces, common. June-Sept. Forming flat patches, 4'-15' broad: 
leaves 3-6 lines long. Fruit not larger than a pin’s head ; the car¬ 
pels angled on the back. 
12. E. liyperieifolia, L. (Larger Spotted Spurge.) 
omoothish or rather hairy; stems ascending , loosely branched (8'- 
”§b); leaves ovate-oblong or oval-oblong , oblique or heart-shap¬ 
ed at the base, often curved, finely serrate , 3-5 -ribbed underneath , 
often blotched with purple; glands on small and slightly stalked 
roundish petal-like appendages; fruit and seeds as in No. 11, but 
nearly thrice their size. — Waste and cultivated places, common. 
July - Sept. — Much larger in all its parts than the last. 
2. PHYEEANTHES, L. Phyllanthus. 
Flowers monoecious. Calyx 5-6-parted, alike in the sterile 
and fertile flowers. Stamens 3; filaments united in a column, 
surrounded by 5 -6 glands or a 5 - 6-lobed glandular disk. Ovary 
3-celled, the cells 2-ovuled : styles 3, 2-cleft: stigmas 6. Pod 
separating into 3 carpels, which split into 2 valves. — Leaves al¬ 
ternate, with small stipules. (Name composed of 0vAAov, leaf ’, 
and avOos , blossom , because the flowers in some species are borne 
upon what appear like leaves.) 
1. P. Carolinensis, Walt. Annual, low and slender, branch¬ 
ed ; leaves 2-ranked, obovate or oval, short-petioled; flowers com¬ 
monly 2 in each axil, almost sessile, one staminate, the other fertile._ 
Gravelly banks, Ohio, W. Penn., and southward. July. 
&• ACALYPHA, L. Three-seeded Mercury. 
Flowers moncecious, the sterile very small, clustered in spikes 
with the few or solitary fertile flowers at their base, or sometimes 
in separate spikes. Calyx of the sterile flowers 4-parted ; of the 
fertile 3-parted. Stamens 8-16: filaments short, united at the 
base : anther-cells separate, long, hanging from the apex of the 
filament. Styles 3, cut-fringed (red). Pod separating into 3 
globular carpels which split into 2 valves. — Annual herbs (in N. 
America), with the appearance of Nettles or Amaranths; the 
leaves alternate, petioled, with stipules. Clusters of sterile flow¬ 
ers with a minute bract; the fertile surrounded by a large and leaf- 
