148 POISONOUS PLANTS 



of Mercury. The family contains many tropical 

 plants and trees; some, such as the Manchineel, 

 being deadly poisonous. 



Sun Spurge {Euphorbia Helioscopia, Fig. 38). — 

 This is a common species. Like all the rest it has 

 an acrid milky juice, used as a popular remedy for 

 warts. The inflorescence consists of an umbel of 

 radiating peduncles, with a whorl of toothed leaves 

 below it. The ultimate pedicels carry the "flowers." 

 They consist of a little cup-like structure provided 

 with five rounded glands on the edge. This is not 

 a calyx, but an involucre of coherent bracts. 

 Within it are a number of distinct flowers, reduced 

 to their simplest elements. Thus, there are 

 numerous male flowers, each consisting of a single 

 stamen, jointed to its pedicel, which arises from the 

 axil of a bract (see the figure pf the Caper Spurge, 

 Fig. 39). Associated with these male flowers is one 

 female, consisting of a pistil of three coherent 

 carpels with cleft stigmas. It is supported on a long 

 stalk, so that it hangs out over the edge of the 

 " involucral cup " (see figure, top). This becomes a 

 capsule, the three carpels bursting elastically when 

 ripe. 



Besides being used for warts, this species, also 

 called Wart-wort, Churn-staff, Cat's-milk, has 

 been improperly employed to cure sore eyelids, 

 causing, in many instances, intolerable pain and 

 inflammation. 



