858 THE BOX-TBEE FAMILY, 



the attention is confined to the few stragglers in our own island. The 

 genera of these latter difier, moreover, so much among themselves, that 

 .save for the links supplied by foreign ones, even their own connection 

 might be doubted. Notwithstanding these* diversities, no family, 

 taken as a whole, admits of being characterized in fewer words ; — the 

 flowers are unisexual, and the fruit is in almost all cases a three-celled 

 capsule, the cells containing each a solitary seed, and when ripe, 

 opening elastically and falling apart. No where else are the peculi- 

 arities in question found together, so that despite the endless variety 

 of general figure, a Euphorbiaceous plant is still determined with 

 facility. It is somewhat odd that the few exceptions which do occur, 

 should await us among the very first species usually encountered, viz : 

 in the mercury, the fruit of which is only two-celled, and in the box- 

 tree, the cells of which are two-seeded. It happens further, that in 

 the ordinary genera the flowers are singularly incomplete, and that 

 in the true Euphorbias, — the commonest genus of all, and the most 

 numerously represented, — they are reduced to the lowest possible 

 condition. Fortunately the great family characters are conspicuous 

 in this curious genus, and if the student takes care to think of it only 

 as the lowest extreme, he is safe in taking it as the basis of his ideas- 

 The leaves of the Euphorbiaceaj are either opposite or alternate, 

 simple or occasionally divided, and usually glabrous. The inflorescence 

 is various. Some species have axillary, and more or less sessile flowers ; 

 in others they are clustered in spikes, or in terminal cymes or umbels. 

 The flowers, whether incomplete or fully developed, are always incon- 

 spicuous, though often surrounded by large and handsome petaloid 

 bracts, which compensate the deficiencies of the nobler parts. The 

 stamens are usually few. All the English species are more or les8 

 poisonous, and there are many kinds in foreign countries, such as the 

 manchineel, which almost realize the famous fable of the upas. 

 •Castor-oil is expressed from the seeds of the Ricinus communis, a tree 

 abundant in the hotter parts of the eastern hemisphere. Tapioca is 

 obtained from the roots of a Brazilian plant called Jatropha, poisonous 

 before exposed to the action of heat ; and bottle india-rubber from 

 the stems of the Sii>honia elastica. The caustic milky juice of the 

 Euphorbias, even of our own country, is reported strong enough to 

 destroy warts. 



Eighteen species grow wild in England, fifteen of them being 

 spurges or true Euphorbias, and four out of the eighteen occurring 

 near Manchester. 



