206 THE SPUBGES. 



annual. Stems prostrate, diffuse, reddish, puberulent, with 

 opposite leaves and alternate branches. The leaves are of 

 two sizes, 3" to 6" long, oblong, very oblique, obtuse, serru- 

 late, with a red-brown spot in the center, and small fringed 

 stipules at the base of the short petiole. The minute flow- 

 ers issue in dense, bracted, lateral clusters on a short pedun- 

 cle, making no display. Glands of the involucre 4, red. 

 Seeds ovoid, 4-angled, transversely rugous (wrinkled), with 

 no caruncle, as some species have (6, d). This is E. macu- 

 lata, the Spotted Spurge. 



E. Uypericifdlia is another closely related and equally com- 

 mon species. It differs only in being erect (1-2 ft.), with 

 leaves larger (I'), often slightly falcate (curved like a sickle 

 = falx), and the flowers terminal. 



E. corollala, abundant westward, is our most showy kind. 

 It stands erect 2-3 feet, bearing an umbel of white 5-lobed 

 involucres. Its perennial root is a purgative more violent 

 than Ipecac. 



Classification. The order EUPHORBIACE^E (the Spurge- 

 worts) is very large, generally limited as follows : 



Plants with a milky, acrid juice. 

 Flowers incomplete and imperfect. 

 Ovary free, 8 celled, with 8 or 6 stigmas. 

 Ovules suspended from the top of the cell. 

 Fruit 3-lobed, separating into 3 carpels. 

 Seeds 1 or 2 in each carpel, anatropous. 

 Embryo straight, 2-lobed, in oily albumen. 



The Spurgeworts number 190 genera, 3200 species. As a whole, 

 the milky juice is venomous, but many species afford valuable oils, 

 resins, and farinaceous food. 



Castor Oil is expressed from the seeds of Ricinvs common*, a well- 

 known gigantic annual in Northern gardens, but a stately tree in the 

 South. 



Croton Oil, a powerful purgative and external irritant, is from the 

 seeds of Croton Tiglium of India. 



