SPURGE FAMILY. 287 



1. PHORADEN'DRON, Nutt. MISTLETOE. 



[Greek, phor, a thief, and dendron, tree ; because they steal their food from the trees they 

 grow upon.] 



Flowers dioecious, usually several under each short and fleshy bract or 

 scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 2 - 4-) lobed. 

 STAMIXATE FL. with a sessile anther at the base of each lobe, transversely 

 2-celled. Stigma sessile. Berry globular, 1-seeded, with a gummy viscid 

 pulp. Stem and branches jointed ; flowers greenish, in short axillary 

 spikes. 



1. P, flaves'cens, Nutt. Leaves elliptic-obovate, obtuse, somewhat 

 longer than the spikes in their axils, somewhat petioled, yellowish-green ; 

 berries pearly-white. 

 YELLOWISH PHORADENDRON. Mistletoe. False Mistletoe. 



Stem 9-18 inches high, terete, much branched; branches opposite. Leaves %-!} 

 inch long, 3-uerved beneath, smooth, fleshy or somewhat leathrey, narrowed at base to a 

 tbirkish terete petiole 1-2 lines in length. Flowers small. 



Branches of trees ; New Jersey, South and West. April. 



Obs. This well-known parasite, feeding as it does at the expense of 

 the trees upon which it fastens itself, is in some places so abundant as to 

 be injurious to valuable forest trees. In some parts of the West it proves 

 very troublesome. Doct. Short writes that the severe winters of the few 

 years just past had killed it out in Kentucky ; but that now it is again 

 overrunning the Elms, Hickories, Wild Cherries, &c., of that region. * 



ORDER LXIIL EUPHORBIA' CE.E. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



Plants usually with an acrid milky juice, mostly simple leaves, with small and deciduous 

 stipules or none, and various, usually monoecious or dioecious flowers; the fruit of 2-3 or 

 several 1 - 2-seeded pods united around a central axis, separating when ripe. Seed sus- 

 pended; embryo in fleshy albumen. Stigmas 2 -3 or more, often forked. Calyx usually 

 valvate in the bud, sometimes wanting. Petals sometimes present 



This large and varied yet essentially natural Family comprises upwards of 100 

 genera, many of them possessing very active properties, or otherwise curious and inter- 

 esting. Of those may be mentioned, tho Croton Tiglium, L., which yields the powerful 

 Croton Oil or Oil of Tiglium, the Jatropha Manihot, L., which affords the Cassava 

 and Tapioca, the Crozophora tinc-toria, Juss., yielding Turnsol, the Siphonia elastica, - 

 1'ers., affording the true Caoutchouc or Gum elastic, the Btixus st-mpervirens, L., afford- 

 ing the beautiful Box-wood, the Hura crepitans, L., or curious Sand-box tree, &c., &c. 



1. EUPHOR'BIA, L. SPURGE. 



[Named after Eupltorbus, physician to King Juba of Mauritania.] 



Flowers monoecious, included in a cup-shaped 4 - 5-lobed involucre re- 

 sembling a calyx or corolla, with glands at its sinuses. STAMINATE FL. 

 numerous, lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a little 

 bract, and consisting of a single stamen jointed on a pedicel ; anther cells 

 globular, separate. PISTILLATE FL. solitary, in the middle of the involu- 

 cre, soon protruded on a long pedicel, consisting of a naked 3-lobed, 3- 

 celled ovary ; styles 3, bifid. Capsule separating into 3 carpels which 



