SPURGE FAMILY. Buphorbiacea. 



SPURGE FAMILY. Euphorbiacece. 



Plants with usually a milky and acrid juice, bearing 

 staminate and pistillate flowers on one plant or exclu- 

 sively either kind on one plant, so there shall be stami- 

 nate ones, and pistillate ones, hence they are largely 

 dependent upon insects for fertilization. The flowers 

 are irregularly or imperfectly constructed, i. e., in some 

 instances without petals, and in others polypetalous or 

 even monopetalous. Fruit generally a three-lobed cap- 

 sule. Represented in the northern countries by the 

 genus Euphorbia, but largely a tropical family. 



A prostrate, spreading weed common in 

 Euphorbia tne san d of the seashore ; stem branched 



polygonifolia and smooth. Flowers inconspicuous and 

 Whitish green usually solitary at the bases of the small 

 Ju,y ~ linear oblong leaves. Seed-capsule round- 



ovoid, and ash gray-colored. Branches 

 3-7 inches long. Along the Atlantic coast from R. I. , 

 south, and on the shores of the Great Lakes. 



A prostrate weed common throughout 

 Milk Purslane jjorth America, in open places and on 

 g f po e roadsides. Stems usually dark red, hairy 



Euphorbia an d spreading radiately like common pus- 



maculata ley ; leaves toothed, red -blotched, and 



Whitish or dark green in color, oblong and obtuse, 

 j U y about 1 inch long. The whitish or ruddy 



September inconspicuous flowers growing at the bases 

 of the leaves. Branches 3-12 inches long. 

 Common everywhere. 



A smooth or slightly hairy annual, the 

 Preslii oblique and three-ribbed leaves of which 



Whitish or are red-spotted and margined ; similar to 

 ruddy those of the preceding species. The stem 



May " branched and nearly upright. The insig- 



p e e nificant flowers whitish or ruddy, and obo- 



void in shape. 8-20 inches high. Common everywhere 

 in fields, by roadsides, and on the borders of thickets. 



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