266 EUPHOEBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Quebec and Ontario, southward to New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Ohio, and Illinois. 

 Habitat : Dry, sandy soil ; fields, roadsides, waste places. 



A very common, small, and spreading plant, with hairy stems 

 three to ten inches long, branching from the base, zigzagged and 

 forking, nearly prostrate. Leaves oblong-ovate, from a quarter- 

 inch to a half-inch long, finely toothed nearly to the oblique base, 

 the petioles extremely short. Flowers on peduncles considerably 

 longer than the petioles, the involucres funnel-shaped, bearing four 

 stalked brown glands, concave at top, and subtended by white, 

 slightly toothed appendages. Pods smooth, with rounded angles ; 

 seeds black with a pale transparent coating, sharply four-angled, 

 faintly wrinkled on the sides between. 



Measures for its suppression the same as for Spotted Spurge. 



SPOTTED SPURGE 

 Euphorbia maculata, L. 



Other English names: Creeping Spurge, Milk Purslane, Spotted 



Matweed. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : June to October. 

 Seed-time: July to November. 



Range: Throughout the American Continent except the far North. 

 Habitat: Gardens, fields, roadsides. Found in all crops, but most 



common in dry soil of low fertility. 



Of all the Spurges, this one seems the most hardy and adaptable, 

 able to grow anywhere and to endure any hardship ; it often appears 

 from the cracks of flags and paving stones in cities, and flourishes 

 while being trodden under foot. From such a place the writer 

 pulled the thrifty specimen from which this description is written. 

 Every part of it, even the root, exudes a poisonous milky juice 

 which will irritate the skin to a red rash or in a short time blister it. 

 Apparently nothing eats the weed, even insects leaving it untouched. 

 (Fig. 187.) 



It has rather long, branching, and fibrous roots, with many 

 fine feeding rootlets. Stem round, slender, finely hairy, pros- 

 trate, three inches to a foot or more in length, with numerous 



