EUPHORBIA CE^:. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 439 



7. CROTONOPSIS, Michx. CKOTONOPSIS. 



Flowers monoecious, in very small terminal or lateral spikes or clusters, the 

 lower fertile. Ster. FL Calyx equally 5-parted. Petals 5, spalulate: Sta- 

 mens 5, opposite the petals : filaments distinct, inflexed in the bud, enlarged at 

 the apex. Feri. FL Calyx unequally 3 - 5-parted. Petals none. Glands 

 (petal-like scales) 5, opposite the sepals. Ovary 1 -celled, simple, 1-pvuled, bear- 

 ing a twice or thrice forked style. Fruit dry and indehiscent, small, 1-seeded. 

 A slender low annual, with alternate or opposite short-petioled linear or 

 elliptical-lanceolate leaves, which are green and smoothish above, but silvery 

 hoary with starry hairs and scurfy with brownish scales underneath, as well as 

 the branches, &c. (Name compounded of Kpdro>i>, and cty-is, appearance, for a 

 plant with the aspect and general character of Croton.) 



1. C. linear is, Michx. Dry sandy soil, New Jersey (Knieslcern, C. E. 

 Smith), Bristol, Pennsylvania (E. Diffenbaugh), Illinois, and southward. July- 

 Sept The form with shorter and broader leaves is C. elliptica, Willd., and C. 

 arge'ntea, Pursh. 



8. PHYLLANTHUS, L. PHYLLANTHUS. 



Flowers monoecious, axillary. Calyx usually 5 - 6-parted, imbricated in the 

 bud. Petals none. Stamens mostly 3, erect in the bud, often united. Ovules 2 

 in each cell of the ovary. Pod depressed; each carpel 2-valved, 2-seeded. Seeds 

 not carunculate. Leaves alternate, 2-ranked, with small stipules. (Name com- 

 posed of <j)v\\ovj leaf, and w6os, blossom, because the flowers in a few species 

 are borne upon leaf-like dilated branches.) 



1. P. Carolinensis, Walt. Annual, low and slender, branched ; leaves 

 obovate or oval, short-petioled ; flowers commonly 2 in each axil, almost sessile, 

 one staminate, the other fertile ; calyx 6-parted ; stamens 3 ; styles 3, each 

 2-cleft; glands of the disk in the fertile flowers united in a cup. Gravelly 

 hanks, E. Penn. to Illinois and southward. July - Sept. 



9. PACHYSANDRA, Michx. PACHYSANDRA. 



Flowers monoecious, in naked spikes. Calyx 4-parted. Petals none. Ster. 

 FL .Stamens 4, separate : filaments long-exserted, thick and flat-: anthers ob- 

 long-line^r. Fert. FL Ovary 3-celled : styles 3, thick, awl-shaped, recurved, 

 stigmatic down their whole length inside. Ovules a pair in each cell, suspended, 

 with the rhaphe dorsal (turned away from the placenta). Pod deeply 3-horned, 

 3-celled, splitting into 3 at length 2-valved 2-seeded carpels. Nearly glabrous, 

 low and procumbent, perennial herbs, with matted creeping rootstocks, and alter- 

 nate, ovate or obovate, coarsely toothed leaves, narrowed at the base into a petiole. 

 Flowers each 1 - 3-bracted, the upper staminate, a few fertile ones at the base, 

 unpleasantly scented : sepals greenish or purplish : filaments white (the size 

 and thickness of the latter giving the name, from Tra^i'y, thick, and avdpa, used 

 for stamen). 



1. P. proctimbens, Michx. Stems (6' -9' long) bearing several ap- 

 proximate leaves at the summit- on slender petioles, and a few many-flowered 

 spikes along the base ; the intervening portion naked, or with a few small scales. 



