Voi,. II.] 



MILKWORT FAMILY 



16. Polygala paucifolia Willd. Fringed Milkwort. 

 Flowering Wintergreen. Gay-wings. (Fig. 2288.) 



Polygala paucifolia Willd. Sp. PI. 3: 880. 1800. 

 Polygala uniflora Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 53. 1803. 



Glabrous, perennial from slender prostrate stems and root- 

 stocks 6 / -i5 / long. Flowering branches erect or ascending, 4'- 

 7' high; leaves of the summits of the stems clustered, ovate or 

 oblong, j'-i^' long, 7 // -io // wide, acute, rough-margined, on 

 petioles 2 // -4 // long; those of the lower part of the shoots suc- 

 cessively smaller, distant, the lowest scale-like; flowers 1-4, 

 axillary to the upper leaves, 7 // -io // long, slender-peduncled, 

 rose-purple or rarely white, showy; wings obovate; crest of the 

 corolla beautifully fimbriate; seed slightly shorter than the 

 caruncle; cleistogamous subterranean flowers few, on short 

 lateral branches. 



In moist rich woods, New Brunswick and Anticosti to the Sas- 

 katchewan, south to Georgia and Illinois. Ascends to 2500 ft. in 

 Virginia. May-July. 



I80 5 .= 



Family 57. EUPHORBIACEAE J. St. Hil. Expos. Fam. 276. 



SPURGE FAMILY. 



Monoecious or dioecious herbs, shrubs or trees, with acrid often milky sap. 

 Leaves opposite, alternate or verticillate, entire or toothed, sessile or petioled, 

 sometimes with glands at the base; stipules present, obsolete or wanting. In- 

 florescence various. Flowers apetalous or petaliferous, sometimes much reduced 

 and subtended by an involucre which resembles a calyx (Euphorbia), the num- 

 ber of parts in the floral whorls often different in the staminate and pistillate 

 flowers. Stamens few, or numerous, in one series or many; filaments separate 

 or united. Ovary usually 3-celled; ovules i or 2 in each cavity, pendulous; 

 styles as many as the cavities of the ovary, simple, divided, or many-cleft. 

 Fruit a mostly 3-lobed capsule, separating, often elastically, into 3 2-valved 

 carpels from a persistent axis at maturity. Seeds anatropous; embryo straight, 

 or slightly curved, in fleshy or oily endosperm, the broad cotyledons almost 

 filling the seed-coats. 



About 210 genera and 4000 species, of wide geographic distribution. 

 Flowers not in an involucre, with a true calyx. 

 Ovules 2 in each cavity of the ovary. 

 Ovule I in each cavity of the ovary. 



Plants clothed with stellate pubescence. 



i. Phyllanthus. 



Ovary, and dehiscent capsule 2-4-celled, mostly 3-celled. 

 Ovary, and capsule i -celled, achene-like. 



2. Croton. 



3. Crotonopsis. 



4. Ditaxis. 



5. Acalypha. 



6. Tragia. 

 8. Jatropha. 



Plants variously pubescent with simple hairs. . 



Inflorescence spicate, racemose, or of axillary clusters. 

 Flowers with petals. 

 Flowers without petals. 

 Styles many- cleft. 



Styles simple, somewhat united at the base. 

 Inflorescence cymose. 

 Plants glabrous, or nearly so. 



Inflorescence racemose, somewhat panicled; pistillate flowers above the staminate. 



7. Ricinus. 



Inflorescence spicate; pistillate flowers below the staminate. 9. Stillingia. 



Flowers in an involucre, the calyx represented by a minute scale at the base of the filament-like 

 pedicel. 10. Euphorbia. 



i. PHYLLANTHUS L. Sp. PI. 981. 1753. 



Annual or biennial herbs (some tropical species shrubs or trees). Stems wiry. Leaves 

 alternate, entire, often numerous, and so arranged as to appear like the leaflets of a 

 compound leaf. Flowers monoecious, apetalous, sessile or pedicelled, a staminate and a 

 pistillate one together in the axils or on the edges of leaf- like branches. Calyx mostly 5-6- 

 parted, the lobes imbricated. Stamens usually 3, the filaments more or less united, 

 rarely separate. Ovary 3-celled; ovules 2 in each cavity; styles 3, each 2-cleft. Capsule glo- 

 bose, each carpel 2-seeded; endosperm of the seed fleshy. [Greek, leaf-flower, the blossoms 

 in some species being seated on leaf-like flattened branches.] 



More than 400 species, natives of the tropical and temperate zones of both hemispheres. 



*Text contributed by DR. JOHN K. SMAI.I,. 



