352 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 

 485. BLOOMING OR FLOWERING SPURGE 



TITHYMALOPSIS COROLLATA <L.) Kl. & Garcke 



Quite common in open grassy places. It appears to be making 

 considerable gains since the investigations of the lake first began. 

 At first there were only a few plants along the railroad near Mur- 

 ray's. It is now scattered more or less everywhere in dry ground 

 about the lake, though there are no dense patches, as there are in 

 some parts of the state. Its straggly growth gives waysides, where 

 it thrives, a somewhat unkempt appearance and occasionally, in 

 sandy neglected fields, it takes the whole area. We saw a field near 

 Bass Lake white v/ith it. It is not to be dreaded as a weed, how- 

 ever, as it does not appear to be able to withstand competition with 

 crops or to endure cultivation. The impression it gives improves 

 considerably upon acquaintance. When first met, it looks like a 

 weed ; as acquaintance progresses it becomes more and more like a 

 flower. It has a long flowering season — from April till October — 

 and in autumn the leaves, especially the lower ones, turn a bright 

 orange red, contrasting vividly with the green about them. One 

 of the cottagers at the lake called attention to the marvelous vari- 

 ability of this form — in the denseness and arrangement of the 

 flower clusters, the shape and size of the corolla-like appendages, 

 etc. A green-flowered plant was found by the elevator in 1909. 

 Increasingly interesting and attractive at all times as one's ac- 

 quaintance with it progresses, it always shows best in the summer 

 twilight when it looms up with peculiar ghostliness. 



486. CYPRESS SPURGE 



TITHYMALUS CYPARISSIAS (L.) Hill 



A patch near the Culver cemetery, from which it had escaped. 

 In blossom in May. Almost every cemetery of the country has a 

 few patches of this plant, which soon becomes a nuisance, spread- 

 ing through lawns and growing extensively from rootstocks. Al- 

 though it becomes a nuisance in the immediate vicinity where it 

 was planted it does not spread far. The flowers are odd, and the 

 whole plant pretty. In autumn coloration it is simply unsurpassed, 

 the colors of the leaves running from red to violet, changeable in 

 various lights. 



487. TOOTHED SPURGE 



POINSETTIA DENTATA (Miclix.) Small 



This appears to have been a recent arrival at the lake; a few 

 were noted along the railroad by the Gravelpit in 1909. 



