EUPHOBBIACEAE 259 



petals .') ; stamens definite, or indefinite ; fruit capsular, lobed, or composed of 2, 3, 

 or many united carpels ; feed suspended, mostly caruncled; embryo in fleshy 

 albumen. 



This large and Taried yet essentially natural Family, comprises a number of 

 plants possessing very active properties, or otherwise curious and interesting. 

 Of such may be mentioned, the Oroton Tiglium, L. which yields the powerful 

 Croton Oil, or OH of Tiglium ; the Ricinus oommunis, L. or Castor OH Bean ; the 

 Jatropha Manihot, L. which affords the Cassava and Tapioca ; the Crozophora tine- 

 toria, Jnss, yielding Turnsol ; the Siphonia elastica, Pers. affording the true Caaut- 

 cltouc or Gum elastic; the Buxus sempervireng, X. affording the beautiful fine- 

 grained Box-wood ; the Ifura erepitans, L. or tree that bears the curious sand-box- 

 like fruit, Ac. &c. 



36T. EirPHOR'BIA, L. 



[Named after Euphorbus, physician to king Juba, of Mauritania.] 

 Flowers included in ft cup-shaped 4- or 5-lobed involucre resembling 

 a calyx or corolla, with glands at its sinuses. STAM. FLOWERS nu- 

 merous, lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a 

 little bract, and consisting of a single stamen jointed on a pedicel; 

 anther-cells globular, separate. PISTILLATE FL. solitary, in the 

 middle of the involucre, consisting of a naked 3-lobed 3-celled 

 pedicellate ovary ; styles 3, bifid. Capsule separating into 3 carpels, 

 which severally split elastically into 2 valves. Seeds 1 in each 

 carpel. Polymorphous herbs, with an acrid milky juice ; peduncles 

 often umbellate-clustered. 



g 1. Leaves alternate, uriihovt stipules, f Involucres subsesstte. 



1. E. Darlington!!, A. Gray. Stem-leaves lance-oblong and 

 oblanceolate, pale and softly pilose beneath, secondary floral leaves 

 orbicular-dilated, all entire ; fruit obscurely warty ; seeds smooth. 

 E. nemoralis. FL Cestr. ed. 2. p. 518. not of KITAIBEL. 

 DARLINGTON'S EUPHORBIA. 



Perennial. Stem 2 to 4 or 5 feet high, often several from the same root, rather 

 stout, smooth, simple, or with slender peduncle-like axillary branches. Leaves 3 

 or 4 inches long, sessile. Umbel terminal, 5- to 8-rayed, the rays once or twice 

 subdivided. Lowest set of floral leaves oval, very obtuse; all the rest rounded, 

 broader than long, almost truncate at base, and closely sessile; glands obliquely 

 oval, sessile. Ovary warty, often becoming nearly smooth in fruit. 

 Hob. Woodlands, and moist thickets : not very common. Fl. May. Fr. July. 



Obs. This species has been found, growing very luxuriantly in 

 thickets, along some of the rivulets among our slaty hills, and in 

 Londongrove. The Rev. M. A* CURTIS also met with it on the 

 mountains of North CaroUna ; and Mr. JOHN M'MiNN informs me, 

 that he finds it in abundance along Spring Creek, near Bellefonte, 

 in Centre County, Penn'a. It is rather remarkable, that a plant of 

 its size should have been so long overlooked, by the Botanists. 

 ft Involucres conspicuously pedunculate. 



2. E. corollata, L. Leaves linear-oblong, obtuse, smooth, 

 the upper ones subverticillate ; floral leaves small, ovate-oblong; 

 involucre with white obovate petal-like appendages ; fruit smooth,' 

 rather small. 



COROLLATE EUPHORBIA. Flowering SpUTgC. 



