DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 99 



united into one or two sets, adnate to the petals; anthers 

 1-celled, opening at the top. 



POLYG'ALA 



Sepals 5, two of them large and spreading like wings. 

 Petals 3, united to each other and to the stamen tube, the 

 middle one forming a hood. Stamens 6-8, with filaments 

 united into a tube, split down one side. Pod notched, flat- 

 tened contrary to the partition, 2-celled, with one seed in 

 each cell. 



a. P. cornu'ta Kellogg. Low shrub with slender stems and 

 branches, 1-6 ft. high. Leaves oval, obtuse, on very short peti- 

 oles. Flowers greenish white tinged with rose-color, in short racemes. 

 Outer sepals usually finely tomentose. Petals shorter than the keel, 

 which is tipped with a straight beak. Pod orbicular with the apex 

 notched. This grows in the pine woods through the Sierra Nevada. 



b. P. Califor'nica Nutt. Low perennial with slender, woody stems 

 rising 2-8 ft. from creeping rootstocks. Flowers in terminal racemes. 

 Sepals nearly smooth. Petals purple, with the wings longer than 

 the keel, which has a recurved beak. The fruit is chiefly from flowers 

 without petals near the root. The pod is smooth and almost orbicular. 

 This is common in the Coast Mountains of California and extends 

 to Oregon. 



EUPHORBIA'CE^. SPURGE FAMILY 



Herbs with milky juice which is sometimes poisonous. 

 Leaves simple with stipules. Flowers monoecious or dioe- 

 cious, naked or apetalous. Stamens 1 to many. Pistil 1, 

 with a 3-lobed ovary and 6 styles or stigmas. Pod dehiscing 

 with an elastic movement that scatters the seeds, leaving 

 the axis. 



I. EUPHOR'BIA, Spurge, Milkweed 



Flowers monoecious, both the staminate and the pistillate 

 included in a cup-shaped involucre which might be mistaken 

 for a calyx. Staminate flowers numerous, each of a single 

 stamen on a short, jointed pedicel with a tiny bract at base. 

 Pistillate flowers solitary, hanging on a long pedicel from the 

 center of the involucre. Ovary with one ovule in each cell ; 



