458 EUPHORBIACE^E. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



into as many 2-valved 1-seeded carpels. Seeds carunculate. Stellate-downy, 

 or scurfy, or hairy and glandular plants, mostly strong-scented ; the fertile 

 flowers usually at the base of the sterile spike or cluster. Leaves alternate, 

 or sometimes imperfectly opposite, with or without obvious stipules. (Kporiav, 

 the Greek name of the Castor-oil Plant, of this family.) 



* Sterile flowers with 4-parted calyx, as many petals, a 4-rayed disk, and 8 



stamens ; fertile flowers with 5-parted calyx, very minute rudimentary pet- 

 als, and the 3 styles 2-cleft. 



1. C. glandulosus, L. Annual, rough-hairy and glandular (1-2 

 high), somewhat umbellately branched ; leaves oblong or linear-oblong, 

 obtusely toothed, the base with a saucer-shaped gland on each side ; fertile 

 flowers capitate-clustered at the base of the sterile spike, sessile in the forks 

 and terminal. Open waste places, Va. to Iowa, E. Kan. and southward. 



* * Sterile flowers with 5-parted calyx, as many glands alternating with the 



petals, and 10- 14 stamens; fertile flowers with 7 12-parted calyx, no 

 petals, and the 3 styles twice or thrice 2-parted. 



2. C. capitatUS, Michx. Annual, densely soft-woolly and somewhat 

 glandular (1 - 2 high), branched ; leaves long-petioled, lance-oblong or elon- 

 gated-oblong, rounded at base, entire ; petals obovate-lanceolate, densely fim- 

 briate ; fertile flowers several, capitate-crowded at the base of the short 

 terminal sterile spike. Barrens, N. J. to Ga., west to S. Ind., Iowa, and 

 K. Kan. July -Sept. 



* * * Sterile floiters with unequally 3 5-parted calyx, as many petals and 



scale-like glands, and 3-8 stamens ; fertile flowers with equally 5-parted 

 calyx, no petals, 5 glands, and 2 sessi/e 2-parted stigmas. 



3. C. monanthogynus, Michx. Annual, whitish-stellate-pubescent 

 and rusty-glandular; steins (1-2 high) slender, erect, below often umbel- 

 lately 3 -4-forked, then repeatedly 2-3-forked or alternately branched ; leaves 

 oblong-ovate or narrowly oblong, entire, often acutish (6-12" long, about 

 twice the length of the petioles) ; flowers in the forks, the sterile few on the 

 summit of a short and erect peduncle, the fertile few and clustered or mostly 

 solitary on short recurved peduncles ; ovary 2-celled ; fruit often by abortion 

 1-celled and 1-seeded; the seed broadly oval. Barrens and dry prairies, 

 S. Ind. to N. C. and Fla., west to E. Kan. June - Sept. 



* * * * Diacimis ; calyx equally 5-parted; petals none ; stamens 10 or more ,- 



stales twice or thrice dichotomously 2-parted. 



4. C. Texensis, Muell. Annual, covered with a close canescent stellate 

 pubescence, dichotomously branched or spreading (1-2 high); leaves nar- 

 rowly oblong-lanceolate to linear; staminate spikes or racemes very short, 

 often sessile ; capsule stellate-tomentose and somewhat muricate. Mo. and 

 Kan. to Ala., Tex., and westward. 



6. CROTONOPSIS, Michx. 



Flowers monoecious, in very small terminal or lateral spikes or clusters, the 

 lower fertile. Ster. Fl. Calyx equally 5-parted. Petals 5, spatulate. Sta- 

 mens 5, opposite the petals ; filaments distiuct, iuflexed in the bud, enlarged 



