76 PLANTS OF BERMUDA. 



male, flower-stalks slendei-j axillary, terminating in an interrupted 

 spike ; female, flowers in axillary clusters. Distribution, England ; 

 habitat, waysides, occasional. Flowers green ; October to December. 



III. RICIKUS. 



Shrubs toith imperfect flowers, in racemes ; calyx three to Jtve partite ; 

 petals none ; stamens united at base, irregularly branched above ; capsule 

 three-lobed, three-celled, three-seeded. 



1. R. communis (Castor Oil Plant). A shrub or small tree ten to 

 fifteen feet high ; stem sparingly branched, smooth, often purplish, 

 branches bearing the ring- like scars of fallen stipules ; petioles 

 twelve to eighteen inches long, bearing two distant glands near the 

 base and two or four below the leaf ; leaves a foot in diameter, 

 attached near the centre to the petiole (peltate), seven to ten lobed, 

 lobes ovate, acute, coarsely toothed, the teeth again finely serrated ; 

 flowers in erect panicles six to ten inches long ; sepals three, valvate ; 

 male, stamens innumerable, irregularly united below ; female, styles 

 three, divided almost to base, feathery, capsule prickly. Distribu- 

 tion, East and West Indies ; habitat, waste places. Flowers green 

 with purple styles ; August to October. 



IV. CROTON. 



Shrubs, usually clothed with stellate hairs, ivool or scales ; /lowers im- 

 perfect, in racemes ; calyx Jive-parted ; petals small or none ; stamens ten 

 to twenty, not united ; capsule three-celled, three-seeded. 



1. C. niaritima. A small seaside shrub, two to three feet high; 

 branches slender, straggling, clothed with brownish -white woolly 

 down ; leaves petioled, alternate, one to two inches long, ovate, 

 entire, pale above, silvery beneath ; spikes terminal or in the forks, 

 many-flowered ; calyx flve-partite ; male, stamens twelve ; female, 

 styles three, much branched ; capsule woolly. Distribution, South- 

 ern United States ; habitat, sandy bays, Somerset and Paget. 

 Flowers whitish. 



v. PHILLANTHUS. 



Shrubby plants with entire leaves and imperfect powers ; calyx jive- 

 partite ; male, stamens three, tmited ; female, styles three, btjid ; fruit 

 three-celled, cells two-seeded. 



1. P. Miruri. An erect annual plant, one -half to two feet high, 

 somewhat shrubby at base ; stem smooth, sparingly branched, 

 giving off alternate leafy branchlets, two to four inches long, which 

 bear about forty alternate leaves, arranged in two rows ; leaves 

 oblong, entire, blunt, oblique at base, pale beneath, one-third of an 

 inch long ; stipules bristle -shaped in pairs ; flowers solitary or in 

 pairs in each axil, much shorter than the leaf ; capsule green, minute 

 globose. Distribution, West Indies ; habitat, cultivated ground, 

 fre([uent. A singular IMimosa-like plant, the leaves are sensitive 

 and close at sundown. Flowers green, hidden beneath the leaves ; 

 August to November. 



