374 EUPHORBIACEAE 
Stems simple, half prostrate or erect, 3 to 4 in. high. Leaves crowded, 
egg-shaped or oblong 1 to 13 in. long, 4 as wide, the leaves below the 
2 
main cluster are reduced to scales or very small leaves. Flowers few, 
showy rose-purple, the keel beautifully fringed. Another form of flowers 
small, greenish, are found close to the ground or beneath the surface, In 
rich grounds, often at foot of rocks. One of the most attractive of our 
spring flowers. May. 
Famity VII—EUPHORBIACEAE. Spurce Famity 
In our region all herbs, with pistils and stamens in different 
flowers, sometimes on the same plant in other cases on different 
plants. Whole plant abounds in acrid milky juice. Leaves op- 
posite or alternate. Flowers without petals or with. Stamens 
few or numerous. In fertile flowers the ovary is composed of 
from 2 to 9 or more carpels (mostly 3) fused to a central pro- 
longation of the axis. An ovule or a pair of ovules may hang 
from the summit of each cell of the ovary. 
Flowers in spikes. 
Staminate’ uppermost 2. “ . « «© «! 6 = (Grotam 
Pistillate uppermost... . = = = os « \AMeaignie 
Flowers in loose clusters. 
Staminate flowers (2 or 3 in the loose group) above the 
pistillate, which is generally solitary . . Crotonopsis 
Staminate and pistillate flowers enclosed in the same 
involucre (leafy bracts resembling a calyx), the ovary 
generally, toward maturity, becoming exserted and 
nodding on its little stalk. (Fig. 1. pl. 88.) Euphorbia 
Flowers solitary, at leaf-axils . . . . . . #£Phyllanthus 
t PHYLLANTHUS; L. 
Herbs, with wiry stems and alternate, entire leaves. Staminate and 
pistillate flowers separate, but on the same plant without flower stems. 
Calyx 4- to 6-parted. Stamens usually 3, the filaments more or less 
united. Capsule globe-formed. 
P. carolinensis, Walt. (Fig. 6, pl. 87.) CaroLiInA PHYLLANTHUS. 
Slender, 4 to 20 in. high. Leaves oblong or pear-shaped, + to $ in. long. 
Calyx lobes 6, linear. Stamens and styles each, 3. Gravelly soil, eastern 
Penna., west and south. May-Oct. 
2. CROTON, L. 
Inconspicuous weeds. Leaves, in our species, alternate. Flowers of 
two kinds on the same flower stalk, the upper bearing stamens, the 
lower pistils. Calyx of staminate flowers of 5 sepals. Petals usually 
rudimentary. Stamens 5 or more. Pistillate flowers, calyx 5 to 10 
sepals. Petals wanting. Ovary of 3 cells, each with one seed. 
