272 EUPHORBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 



Means of control 



Small areas, newly infested, should be grubbed out or destroyed 

 with hot brine or caustic soda. Where too abundant to make such 

 treatment practicable, close, persistent cutting, in order to starve 

 the roots and prevent all seed development, will finally suppress 

 the weed. 



SUN SPURGE 



Euphorbia Helioscopia, L. 



Other English names : Wartgrass, Wartweed, Sunweed, 

 Little-good, Cat's Milk, Wolf's Milk, Mouse-Milk. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to October. 



Seed-time: July to November. 



Range: Eastern Quebec to Ontario, southward to 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. 



Habitat : Fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



An immigrant from Europe, abundant in its 

 range, which is gradually extending. Its milky juice 

 is exceedingly copious, and so acrid that it is used 

 as a caustic to destroy warts. (Fig. 189.) 



Stem stout, smooth, eight to fifteen inches tall, 

 often branched from the base. Leaves obovate, 

 rounded at tips, finely toothed, whorled and sessile 

 at the base of the umbel, but those on the stalk 

 scattering and tapered to a short petiole. Umbel 

 compound, the rays usually five, first triply 

 branching and then each branch forked; in- 

 volucres bell-shaped, with unappendaged, round, 

 stalked glands. Capsule smooth, with rounded 

 FIG. 189. lobes; seeds ovoid, reddish brown, the surface 



S (Eu ph *2 T Hl netted and P itted like a honeycomb. 



lioscopid). x i- Means of control the same as for Spotted Spurge. 



CYPRESS SPURGE 

 Euphdrbia Cyparissias, L. 



Other English name: Quack Salver's Grass. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 



