DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 1 97 



ages; seeds ovoid, and dark colored. Native in regions 

 extending from western Minnesota to Colorado. The 

 milky juice exuding from the broken stems causes an 

 itching sensation wherever it touches the flesh, the gen- 

 eral effect being similar to that produced by poison ivy. 

 The honey obtained by bees from this plant is poisonous, 

 and thus entirely unfit for use. 



Toothed Spurge (E. dentata, Michx.). A dull green, 

 hairy annual, with an erect ascending stem eight to fif- 

 teen inches high ; lower leaves alternate, upper whorled 

 and opposite, varying in shape from ovate to linear, three 

 and one-half to five inches long and coarsely toothed, 

 pale at the base and narrowed into slender petioles, nerves 

 very prominent beneath ; involucres in terminal clusters, 

 bearing one to four yellowish, short-stalked glands ; seeds 

 ash-colored, slightly four-angled. Distributed from Penn- 

 sylvania westward to South Dakota and southward to 

 Louisiana and Mexico. 



Cruel Plant (E. heterophylla, L.). An erect, smooth 

 annual, growing from one to three feet high, with alter- 

 nate, petioled leaves which vary in shape from linear- 

 lanceolate to orbicular and with margins that may be 

 entire, wavy, or toothed; upper leaves usually fiddle- 

 shaped, each with a red spot at the base; involucre in 

 terminal clusters, five-lobed, with a single gland or a few 

 that are almost sessile ; seeds roundish, wrinkled transversely 

 and tubercled. Rather sparingly distributed through Illinois, 

 westward to Nebraska, and southward into Missouri. 



Cypress Spurge (Euphorbia Cyparissias, L.). A bright 

 green perennial growing six to twelve inches tall, and 

 occurring in patches ; it has creeping rootstocks ; clus- 

 tered stems ; entire leaves, those of the stem linear and 

 densely crowded, those of the flower heart-shaped ; flow- 

 ers in umbellate clusters, the umbel being many-rayed, 

 with crescent-shaped glands ; pods granular ; seeds oblong 

 and smooth. Originally introduced from Europe as an 



