EUPHORBTACE^:. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 435 



* * * Perennials or annuals; ours ivith entire and scattered leaves, only the floral ones 



in the umbel-like inflorescence whorled or opposite and of different shape :. glands 

 of the involucre mostly 4, crescent-shaped or 2-horned, 



*- Seeds smooth and dark-colored : perennials, with running rootstocks. 



19. E. ESULA, L. Stems clustered (1 high) ; leaves lanceolate or linear ; the 

 floral (yellowish) broadly heart-shaped, mucronate ; umbel divided into many rays, 

 then forking; glands short-horned (brown); pods smoothish and granular. 

 Essex County, Massachusetts, Oakes. June. (Adv. from Eu.) 



20. E. CYPARfssiAS, L. Stems densely clustered (6'- 10' high) ; stem-leaves 

 linear, crowded, the floral ones heart-shaped; umbel many-rayed; glands crescent- 

 shaped ; |*>ds granular. Escaped from gardens to roadsides, in a few places in 

 New England. (Adv. from Eu.) 



*- - Seeds sculptured, ash-colored: pod smooth: annuals or biennials. 



21. E. PEPLUS, L. Erect or ascending (5' -10' high); leaves petioled, thin, 

 round-obovate, the upper floral ones ovate ; umbel 3-rayed, then forking ; glands 

 long-horned ; lobes of the pod ^.-wing-crested on the back ; seeds 2-grooved on the 

 inner face, pitted on the back (scarcely over half a line long). Waste places east- 

 ward : not common. July, Aug. 



22. E. commutata, Engelm. Stems branched from a commonly de- 

 cumbent base (6' -12' high); leaves obovate, obtuse; the upper all sessile, the 

 upper floral ones roundish-dilated, broader than long ; umbel 3-forked ; glands 

 with slender horns ; pod obtusely angled, crestless ; seeds ovate, pitted all over (a line 

 long). (E. Ohidtica, Steudel $ Hochstetter.) Along streams and shady slopes, 

 from Virginia towards the mountains to Kentucky, Wisconsin, and westward. 

 May, June. Leaves often persistent over the winter on sterile shoots, turning 

 red. Larger in all its parts than E. Peplus, with which it has been confounded ; 

 but the characters of the pod and seeds readily distinguish it. 



* # * * A glabrous annual or biennial, with entire opposite and decussate leaves, an 



umbelliform inflorescence, and short-homed glands : seeds carunculate. 



23. E. LATHYRIS, L. Stem stout (2 -3 high) ; leaves thick, linear or ob- 

 long, the floral ones oblong-ovate and heart-shaped ; umbel 4-rayed, then forking. 

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



2. JATROPHA, L. (CNIDOSCOLUS, Pohl., Ed. 2.) 



Flowers monoacious, rarely dioecious, in a terminal open forking cyme ; the 

 fertile ones usually in the lower forks. Calyx corolla-like, in the staminate 

 flowers often salver-shaped, 5-lobed; in the pistillate, 5-parted, imbricated or 

 convolute in the bud. Corolla of 5 distinct or apparently united petals, or in 

 our species none. Glands of the disk opposite the calyx-lobes. Stamens 10-30, 

 in 2 or more whorls : filaments monadelphous at the base. Ovary mostly 3- 

 celled : styles 3, united below, their summits once or twice forked. Pod 3-celled, 

 3-seeded, separating into 3 two-valved carpels. Seed carunculate. Perennial 

 herbaceous or shrubby plants, chiefly tropical, with alternate mostly lorig- 

 petioled palmately-veined leaves, and stipules. Our species is of the section 

 CNIDOSCOLUS ; of plants mostly armed with stinging bristles. (Name said by 

 Linnaeus to be formed of larpov, a remedy, and </>ayo>, to eat.) 



