270 EUPHORBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 



several short- stalked, yellowish glands without appendages. 

 Capsules smooth, with rounded angles, nearly one-sixth of an 

 inch in diameter. Seeds ashy-gray, obscurely four-angled, bluntly 

 ovoid, the surface tuberculate ; they are often an impurity of grass 

 and clover seeds. (Fig. 188.) 



Means of control 



Infested meadows should be harvested early, before the first 

 flowers mature seed. The poisonous qualities of the milky juice 

 are volatile and disappear with heat or drying, and such hay is 

 wholesome. In grain fields the seedlings should be harrowed out 

 in the spring, for the spreading habit of growth of the plant will 

 crowd and starve the crop ; if practicable, hand-pull the survivors ; 

 if not, burn over the stubble. In cultivated ground tillage should 

 be late in order to prevent the maturing of late-developed seed. 



PAINTED LEAF 



Euphorbia heterophylla, L. 

 (Poinsettia heterophylla, Small) 



Other English names: Cruel Plant, Various-leaved Spurge. 



Native. Annual or biennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : May to October. 



Seed-time: June to November. 



Range: Illinois to Montana, southward to Mexico, Texas, and 



Florida. Widely distributed in tropical America. 

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



The milky juice of this plant, like that of all its tribe, will irritate 

 and blister the skin, and, if eaten by stock, will have a like effect 

 on the inner membranes and make the animals very sick ; another 

 reason for its name of Cruel Plant is that honey gathered from its 

 flowers is acrid and emetic and unfit for use. 



Stems one to three feet tall, erect, smooth or nearly so, bright 

 green, woody at base, with numerous branches, the lower spreading, 

 the upper ones ascending. Leaves alternate and all with slender 

 petioles, but most variable in shape, some being round, or ovate, 

 or lance-shaped, or linear, with edges entire or toothed or wavy, 

 often on the same plant; sometimes the upper leaves are fiddle- 



