(SPURGE FAMILY.) 451 



what cuspidate; fruit ovoid, larger (3-4" long), sessile or on short stout pedi- 

 cels. w. Minn, to S. W. Kan., and westward. 



3. C. livida, Richardson. Peduncles slender, axillary, 3-5-flowered, 

 shorter than the oval leaves ; calyx-tube not continued beyond the ovary, the 

 lobes ovate ; style short ; fruit pulpy when ripe, red. Newf ., N. Vt., sandy 

 shores of L. Superior, and northward. 



2. PYBULABIA, Michx. OIL-NUT. BUFFALO-NUT. 



Flowers dioecious or polygamous. Calyx 4-5-cleft, the lobes recurved, 

 hairy-tufted at base in the male flowers. Stamens 4 or 5, on very short fila- 

 ments, alternate with as many rounded glands. Fertile flowers with a pear- 

 shaped ovary invested by the adherent tube of the calyx, naked at the flat 

 summit ; disk with 5 glands ; style short and thick ; stigma capitate-flattened. 

 Fruit fleshy and drupe-like, pear-shaped ; the globose endocarp thin. Embryo 

 small ; albumen very oily. Shrubs or trees, with alternate short-petioled and 

 deciduous leaves ; the small greenish flowers in short and simple spikes or 

 racemes. (Name a diminutive of Pyrus, from the shape of the fruit.) 



1. P. ptlbera, Michx. Shrub straggling (3-12 high), minutely downy 

 when young, at length nearly glabrous; leaves obovate-oblong, acute or 

 pointed at both ends, soft, very veiny, minutely pellucid-punctate ; spike small 

 and few-flowered, terminal ; calyx 5-cleft ; fruit 1' long. (P. oleifera, Gray.) 

 Rich woods, mountains of Penn. to Ga. Whole plant, especially the fruit, 

 imbued with an acrid oil. 



ORDER 98. EUPHORBIACE^E. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



Plants usually with a milky acrid juice, and monoecious or dioecious flow- 

 ers, mostly apetalous, sometimes achlamydeous (occasionally polypetalous or 

 wonopetalous) ; the ovary free and usually ^-celled, with a single or some- 

 times a pair of ovules hanging from the summit of each cell; stigmas or 

 branches of the style as many or twice as many as the cells; fruit commonly a 

 &-lobed capsule, the lobes or carpels separating elastically from a persistent 

 axis and elastically 2-valved ; seed anatropous ; embryo straight, almost as 

 long as and the flat cotyledons mostly as wide as the fleshy or oily albumen. 

 Stipules often present. A vast f yiily in the warmer parts of the world ; 

 most numerously represented in northern countries by the genus Eu- 

 phorbia, which has very reduced flowers within a calyx-like involucre. 



* Flowers all without calyx, included in a cup-shaped calyx-like involucre, the whole liable 

 to be mistaken for a single flower. 



1. Euphorbia. Involucre surrounding many staminate flowers (each of a single naked 



stamen) and one pistillate flower (a 3-lobed pistil). 



* * Flowers with a calyx, without involucre. 

 - Seeds and ovules 2 in each cell ; flowers monoecious. 



2. Pachy sandra. Flowers in basal spikes. Calyx 4-parted. Stamens 4, distinct. 



3. Phyllanthus. Flowers axillary. Stamens 3, united. 



- - Seeds and ovules 1 in each cell 

 a. Flowers apetalous, in cymose panicles (2-3-chotomous) ; stamens 10, erect in the bud. 



4. Jatropha. Calyx corolla-like, the staminate salver-form ; armed with stinging hairs. 



