228 EUPHOBBIACEAE. 



1. Mercurialis annua L. Sp. PL 1035. 1753. 



A weak glabrous annual 2-6 dm. high. Leaves thin, ovate to lanceolate, 

 3-6 X 1-5-2.5 cm., narrowed at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex, 

 crenate or serrate with rounded teeth ; petioles somewhat less than half the 

 length of tjie blade; male flowers in interrupted spikes longer than the leaves; 

 female flowers clustered in the axils. Capsule 2-carpelled, 4-5 mm. broad, 

 hispid; seeds ovoid, '2.5 X 2 mm., grayish green, densely shallow-pitted. 



Adventitious in waste grounds near Nassau, New Providence : Bermuda ; Dela- 

 ware to Texas. Native of Europe. HERB MERCURY. 



15. ACALYPHA L. Sp. PI. 1003. 1753. 



Herbs or shrubs. Stems mostly erect. Leaves alternate, stipulate. Flow- 

 ers in spikes or spike-like racemes ; staminate cluster often peduncled, each flower 

 in the axil of a minute bractlet, with a 4-parted calyx and 8-16 stamens united 

 at their bases. Pistillate flowers subtended by a foliaceous bract, which often 

 equals or overtop the staminate, the calyx 3-5-parted; petals wanting in both 

 kinds of flowers; capsule usually of 3, 2-valved carpels, each 1-seeded. [Greek, 

 nettle.] About 250' species, mostly tropical and subtropical. Type species: 

 Acalypha virginica L. 



Inflorescence densely cylindric. 1. A. alopecuroidea. 

 Inflorescence loosely spicate. 



Female bracts cleft to about the middle. 



Plants perennial, prostrate. 2. A. chamaedrifolia. 



Plants annual, erect. 3. A. ostryaefolia. 



Female bracts cleft to the base. 4. A. setosa. 



1. Acalypha alopecuroidea Jacq. Ic. Bar. 3: 19. 1793. 



Herbaceous, annual, 1-3 dm. high. Leaves broadly ovate, 5-7 X 3-4.5 cm., 

 appressed-pubescent, membranous, flaccid, truncate or slightly cordate at the 

 base, 5-nerved, cuspidate-acuminate, serrate, the petiole as long as the blade or 

 longer; spikes terminal, closely flowered, 5 cm. long; female bracts 1-flowered, 

 membranous, ovate-triangular, 7-9 mm. long, 3-5-lacerate to the base; calyx- 

 lobes ovate, acute; ovary hirsute above; styles elongated, delicate, attenuate, 

 entire or shortly bifid ; carpels slightly keeled ; seeds ovoid, apiculate, 1 X -8 

 mm., reddish-brown; testa densely and minutely pitted-cellular; caruncle waxen, 

 longitudinal, linear. 



Adventitious in waste places, Abaco and New Providence : Cuba ; Porto Rico ; 

 Jamaica ; Mexico ; Central America ; Caribbean coast of South America. Referred 

 by Dolley to Acalypha polystachya Jacq. SPICATE ACALYPHA. 



2. Acalypha chamaedrifolia (Lam.) Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. 15 2 : 879. 1866. 



Croton chamaedrifolius Lam. Encycl. 2: 215. 1786. 

 Acalypha reptans Sw. Prodr. 99. 1788. 



A prostrate herbaceous or suffrutescent perennial, pubescent or glabrate, 

 with branches 1-3 dm. long. Leaves ovate, .8 X .5-3.5 X 1-5 cm., base blunt or 

 rounded, apex acute, margin crenate-dentate;' petioles about one-third the 

 length of the blades; inflorescence in cylindric terminal subsessile androgynous 

 , racemes, male above and few-flowered female below, sometimes with similar 

 superaxillary racemes or female clusters, the flowers sessile; bracts roundish, 

 dentate or crenate, the teeth ovate, seeds ovate-globose, apiculate, brown, 

 3X 1 mm.; testa very minutely pitted-cellular; caruncle longitudinal, waxen, 

 wrinkled. 



Red-lands and rocky coppices, Eleuthera : Florida ; Cuba ; Hispaniola to Tortola 

 and Guadeloupe ; Jamaica. PROSTRATE ACALYPHA. 



