294 SPURGE FAMILY. 



1. EUPHORBIA, SPURGE. ( Said to be named for ^EwjoAorftus, physician 

 to King Juba.) Flowers commonly in late summer. 



§ 1. Shrubby species of the conservatory, winter-flowering, with red bracts or leaves. 



E. pulch6rrima, or Poinsettia, of Mexico : unarmed stout shrub, with 

 ovate or oblong and angled or sinuately few-lobed leaves, rather downy beneath, 

 those next the flowers mostly entire (4' - 5' long) and of the biightest vermilion- 

 red ; flowers in globular greenish involucres bearing a great yellow gland at the 

 top on one side. 



E. spldndens, of the Mauritius : smooth with thick and horridly prickly 

 stems, oblong-spatulate mucronate leaves, and slender clammy peduncles bearing 

 a cyme of several deep-red apparently 2-petalous flowers ; but the seeming petals 

 are bracts around the cup-like involucre of the real flowers. 



E. fulgens, or jacquini.eflora, of Mexico : unarmed, smooth, with slen- 

 der recurved branches and broadly lanceolate leaves, few-flowered ; peduncles 

 shorter than the petioles, what appears like a 5-cleft corolla are the bright red 

 lobes of the involucre. 



§ 2. Herbs natives of or naturalized in the country, the first and last and some- 

 times a few of the others cult, in gardens : fl. late summer. 



* The haves which are crowded next the flower-cups or invohicres have their mar- 

 gins or a part of the base colored (white or red) : stem erect, 1° - 3° high. 



E. marginata. Wild on the plains W. of the Mississippi, and cult, for 

 ornament : leaves pale, ovate or oval, sessile, the lower alternate, uppermost in 

 threes or pairs and broadly white-margined ; flower-cup with 5 white petal-like 

 appendages behind as many saucer-shaped glands. 



E. heteroph^lla. Rocky banks S. W. : smooth ; leaves alternate, ovate 

 and sinuate-toothed, or fiddle-shaped, or some of them lanceolate or linear and 

 entire ; the upper with red base ; no petal-like appendages to the flower-cup and 

 ,only 1 or 2 sessile glands. 



E. dentkta. Rich soil from Penn. S. W. : hairy, only the lower leaves 

 alternate, the upper opposite, varying from ovate to linear, uppermost paler or 

 whitish at base, and the few glands of the flower-cup short-stalked. 



* * The leaves none of them colored : but the flower-cup with 5 bright-white con- 



spicuous appendages, imitating a b-cleft corolla. JJ, 



E. COroll^ta. Gravelly or sandy soil, from New York S. & W. : 2° - 3° 

 high ; leaves varying from ovate to linear, entire, the lower alternate, upper 

 whorled and opposite ; flower-cups umbelled, long-stalked. 



* * * Leaves all alike and opposite, green, or with a brown-red spot, short-petioled, 



ivith scaly or fringed-cut stipules : stems low-spreading or prostrate, repeat- 

 edly forked : a small flower-cup in each fork, bearing 4 glands, each bor- 

 dered with a more or less petal-like white or reddish margin or appendage.^ 

 Of these there are several species, insignificant iveeds ; these two are the 

 commonest everywhere in sandy or gravelly open places. 

 E. macul^ta. Prostrate ; leaves oblong-linear, very oblique at base, ser- 

 rulate above, blotched in the centre ; pods sharp-angled, very small. 



E. hypericifdlia. Ascending 10' -20' high; leaves ovate-oblong or 

 linear-oblong, serrate, often with red spot or margins; pod blunt-angled; seeds 

 wrinkled. 



* * * * Leaves without stipules, none with colored margins or spots : the flower- 



cups also green or greenish, umbelled, their glands wholly destitute of any 

 petal-like appendage. 

 ■*- Leaves of the commonly erect stem alternate or scattered : those of the timbel-like 

 inflorescence ivhorltd or opposite and of different shape, usually roundish : 

 glands of the flower-cup mostly 4. Weeds w weed-like. 

 ++ Glands of the flou-er-cup transversely oval and obtuse. (T) 

 E. platyph^Ua. Nat. from, Europe N. : upper stem-leaves lancc-oblon!?, 

 acute, minutely serrulate; uppermost heart-shaped ; floral ones triangular-ovr.to 

 and heart-shaped ; umbel .'i-rayed ; glands large and sessile ; pod beset with 

 depressed warts ; seed smooth. 



