EUPHORBIACEJE. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 389 



Leaves scattered, thin and membranaceous : pod smooth. 



17. E. PEPLUS, L. (PETTY SPURGE.) Erect or ascending (5' -10' high); 

 leaves petioled, round-obovate ; the upper floral ones ovate ; umbel 3-rayed, then 

 forking ; glands long-horned ; lobes of the pod ^-wing-crested on the back j 

 seeds ^-grooved on the inner face, pitted on the back. Q) Waste places in the 

 Eastern States ; rather rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



18. E, commute t:i, Engelm. mss. Stems branched from a commonly 

 decumbent base (6' -12' high) ; haves obovate, the upper all sessile, the upper 

 floral roundish-dilated, broader than long; pod obtusely angled, crestless; seeds 

 ovate, pitted all over. (|) (i) 1J. ? Along water-courses, from Virginia toward 

 the mountains to Ohio and westward. Leaves often persistent over the winter 

 on sterile shoots, turning red, like those of the European E. amygdaloides 

 Seeds 1" long, larger than those of E. Peplus; with which this has been con 

 founded ; but the character of the pods and seeds readily distinguish it. 



-* -* Leaves all opposite or nearly so, thickish : pod smooth. 



19. E. LATHYRIS, L. (CAPER SPURGE.) Stem stout (2-3 high); 

 leaves linear-oblong, the floral oblong-ovate and heart-shaped, pointed ; umbel 

 3 -4-rayed^then forking; glands short-horned. (f) Sparingly escaped from 

 gardens, where it is common. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. CNIDOSCOL.US, Pohl. SPURGE-NETTLE. 



Flowers monoecious, in a terminal open forking cyme ; the fertile ones usu- 

 ally in the lower forks. Calyx corolla-like (white) ; in the staminate flowers 

 salver-shaped, 5-lqbed; in the pistillate, 5-parted, convolute in the bud. Corolla 

 none. Hypogynous glands 5, small. Ster. Fl. Stamens 10, monadelphous 

 below, the inner ones longer. Pert. Fl. Ovary 3-celled : styles 3, short, some- 

 what united, many-cleft. Pod 3-celled, bristly-hairy, 3-seeded, separating into 

 3 two-valved carpels. Perennials, beset with stinging bristles (whence appar- 

 ently the name, from Kvidrj, a nettle, and ovceoAos, a prickle). 



1. C. s tim ill os;i. (TREAD-SOFTLY.) Herbaceous, from a long peren- 

 nial root, branching (6' -18' high) ; leaves roundish-heart-shaped, 3-5-lobed 

 (Jatropha stimulosa, Michx.) Sandy soil, Virginia and southward. 



3. ACALiYPIIA, L. THREE-SEEDED MERCURY. 



Flowers monoecious ; the sterile very small, clustered in spikes, with the few 

 or solitary fertile flowers at their base, or sometimes in separate spikes. Calyx 

 of the sterile flowers 4-parted ; of the fertile, 3-parted. Corolla none. Stamens 

 8-16 : filaments short, monadelphous at the base : anther-cells separate, long, 

 hanging from the apex of the filament. Styles 3, cut-fringed (red). Pod sep- 

 arating into 3 globular carpels which split into 2 valves, rarely of only one car- 

 pel. Annual herbs (in N. America), with the appearance of Nettles or Ama- 

 ranths ; the leaves alternate, petioled, with stipules. Clusters of sterile flowers 

 with a minute bract ; the fertile surrounded by a large and leaf-like cut-lobed 

 persistent bract. ('A/coX^i/, an ancient name of the Nettle.) 

 33* 



