46. EUPHOEBTACE^. 



137 



5. E. segetalis, L. Annual oi- perennial, glabrous 

 and glaucous; stem erect, simple or branching from base, 

 sometimes with flowering branches below the umbel ; leaves 

 thin, scattered, spreading, linear or lanceolate, mucronate, 

 the floral ones broad-oval, often contracted near the middle 

 and tapering to the summit ; umbel of 5 rays, forked several 

 times ; bracts almost semicircular ; glands crescent-shaped, 

 yellow, with moderately long horns ; carpels tuberculate on 

 back; seed ovoid, ashy-white, dark-pitted all over, with a 

 conical caruncle. Resembles the preceding in habit, but 

 the umbel is usually as long as or longer than the stem, 

 while in E. tenacina it is shorter than the stem. 



Pasture and cultivated land at the foot of Mount Lofty 

 Range. — Most of the year. — Mediterranean region. 



6. £• dendroides, L. Glabrous undershrub with 

 thick spreading branches, leafless below; leaves dark-green, 

 thickish, crowded, spreading, oblong-lanceolate ; bracts yel- 

 lowish, broad-oval; umbels of o-lO rays, once or twice 

 forked ; glands orange, truncate or slightly and bluntly 

 crescent-shaped; carpels smooth; seed smooth, obliquely 

 truncate at top, carunculate. 



Escaped • here and there from gardens. — Aug. -Sept. — 

 Coasts of the Mediterranean. 



E. Drummondii. Boissier, a small, prostrate native 

 perennial, with opposite leaves and entire, purplish glands, 

 is a common weed in cultivated fields in the northern areas, 

 and is said to be injurious to cattle and sheep, but recent 

 experiments in the eastern States do not bear out this 

 opinion. 



2. RiciNUS, L. 



(Latin ricinus, a tick, which the 

 .seeds are supposed to resemble.) 



1. Ricinus cointnunis, 



L. Castor-oil Plant. Tall spread- 

 ing shrub, branching from base, 

 the herbaceous parts reddish; 

 leaves dark-green above, large, 

 alternate, peltate, palmately cut 

 into 7-9 oval-lanceolate, saw- 

 toothed lobes ; flowers in loose, 

 erect racemes, which are often 

 paniculate by the branching of 

 the peduncles ; upper flowers 

 female with 5 perianth-segments 

 more or less cohering, and -3 red, 

 bifid styles ; lower flowers male 

 with o oval, finally recurved seg- 

 ments and numerous stamens 

 with branching filaments : carpels 

 with more or less rigid .spines on 



