390 EUPHORBIACE^E. (SI'URGE FAMILY.) 



* Fruit smooth or merely pubescent. 



1. A* VirginiCR) L. Leaves ovate or oblonq-ovate, ol>tusely and sparsely an* 

 &tc, long-pet ioled ; sterile spike rather few-flowered, mostly shorter than the deeply 

 palmately -cleft fruiting bracts. ' Fields and open places ; common. July - Sept 

 A homely weed, l-2 high, smoothish or rather hairy, often turning pur- 

 plish in autumn. Fertile flowers 1-3 in each axil, along with the small and 

 short-pedunclcd sterile spike : bracts very large and leaf-like, unequally cut into 

 5-9 lanceolate lobes. 



2. A. gl'ctcilCllS. Leaves lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or linear, obscurely 

 serrate, short-pctioled, mostly obtuse ; sterile spike long and slender, much longer than 

 the cut-toothed bract. Sandy dry soil, Khode Island to Illinois, and common 

 southward. A somewhat downy plant, 6' -12' high; the heart-ovate fruiting 

 bract sharply cut-toothed, or barely cleft at the sides ; the sterile spike frequently 

 1' long and half the length of the leaves. Perhaps runs into the last. Var. 

 MONOCOCCA, Engelm., is a narrow and nearly entire-leaved form, with only one 

 cell to the fruit, and the seed larger. Western Illinois. 



* * Fruit, echinate with soft bristly green projections. 



3. A. CaroIilliilUJl, Walt. Leaves thin, ovate-cordate, sharply and closely 

 serrate-toothed, abruptly acuminate, long-petioled ; sterile spikes short; the fer- 

 tile ones mostly terminal and elongated, its bracts deeply cut into many linear 

 lobes. (A ostrysefolia, RiddeU.) New Jersey (Princeton, Torrcy), Ohio, and 

 southward. 



4. TRAGIA, Plumier. TRAOIA. 



Flowers monoecious, in racemes, apetalous. Ster. Fl. Calyx 3-partcd. Sta- 

 mens 2 or 3 : filaments short, distinct. Pert. Fl. Calyx 5-8- (mostly 6-) 

 parted, persistent. Style 3-clcft : stigmas 3, simple. Pod 3-cellcd, 3-lobed, 

 bristly, separating into three 2-valved 1-secdcd carpels. Erect or climbing 

 plants (perennial herbs in U. S.), pubescent or hispid, with mostly alternate 

 leaves ; the small-ilowered racemes terminal or opposite the leaves (rarely axil- 

 lary) ; the sterile flowers above, the few fertile at the base, all with small bracts. 

 (Named for the early herbalist Trayits.) 



1. T. lire IIS, L Erect, paniculate-branched, softly hairy -pubescent (1 

 high) ; leaves varying from obovate-oblong to lance-linear, acute at the base, ob- 

 tusely or siuuately few-toothed or lobed, sometimes entire, short-pet iolcd or sessile. 

 Pry ground, Virginia and southward. May -Aug. (A bad name for the 

 species; for the hairs are not at all stinging nor shaq). Walter's name, T. in 

 nocua, should supersede it.) 



2. T. isi'tit'if'olia, Miclix. Erect or reclining, hirsute ; leaves ovate-lancen 

 'ate or triangular-lanceolate, or the lower ovate, all tomewmtt cordate or truncate at 

 the base, coarsely cut-toothed, short-petioled. Virginia (Pursh), and common 

 southward. 



3. T. Iliacrocarpa, Willd. Twining, somewhat hirsute; leaves deeply 

 cordate, ovate, sharply serrate (3' long), all but the uppermost hng-pelioled (pod 

 ^' hro;id). (T. cordata, AJichx.) Kentucky lMit'hau.e). and southward. 



