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— NETTLES 
UR last words in the foregoing 
chapter had reference to the pro- 
tective resemblance of an innocuous 
plant to one of distinctly poisonous 
character —the Cypress Spurge 
and now we will briefly consider the Spurge family. 
Although represented in our country by a dozen native 
species of Spurge, the Box, and two Mercuries, only the 
Box is of any importance, or at all well known to the 
public. Yet the family in its cosmopolitan character 
contains among its three thousand species a large 
number that are of the greatest commercial importance. 
Teakwood, castor-oil, caoutchoue, tapioca, and boxwood 
are among the varied products of this very interesting 
family, most of whose members produce the milky 
juice that is intensely acrid even where it is not 
actually poisonous. In appearance, too, these plants 
are of the most varied character. In South Africa 
many of them imitate, so to speak, the Cacti of South 
America, keeping all their substance in a swollen suc- 
culent stem, and reducing their leaves to sharp spines. 
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