EUPHOBBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 265 



and it is their rapid stooling after beheading that causes the swift 

 appearance. Its acrid, milky juice is credited with causing " slob- 

 bers" in grazing cattle and horses, and another symptom of Spurge 

 poisoning is a wide-staring, glassy brightness of eyes, whence the 

 common names. (Fig. 186.) 



It is a graceful plant, with slender, round, wiry, reddish stem, 

 six inches to two feet or more in height, smooth or nearly so, fork- 

 branched and spreading. Leaves nar- 

 rowly oblong, varying to ovate, or 

 sometimes lance-shape and slightly 

 curved, a half inch to an inch long, 

 often with unequal sides, usually with 

 red margins and a brownish red blotch 

 in the center, finely and sharply 

 toothed, with short petioles and tri- 

 angular stipules. Flowers on peduncles 

 longer than the petioles, the involucres 

 narrowly obovoid, the four glands sub- 

 tended by rounded, entire, white or 

 red appendages. Pods smooth, the 

 seeds grayish black, long ovoid, obtusely 

 four-angled, wrinkled and tubercled 

 between. They are nearly always 

 found in clover and grass seed. 



Means of control 



FIG. 186. Upright Spotted 



Burn over infested stubbles in order Spurge (Euphorbia Preslii). 

 to kill the stalks and destroy the seeds x * 



on the surface of the ground. On cultivated ground, per- 

 sistently hoe-cut or hand-pull the weed before seed matures. 

 Infested meadows should be put to some well-tilled crop, liberally 

 fertilized, before reseeding heavily to grass or clover. 



HAIRY SPURGE 



Euphdrbia hirsiita, Wiegand 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 



