THE SPURGE FAMILY. 299 



THE SPURGE FAHILY. 



Etip Jior h ii icccc. 



Trees, shrubs or herbs commonly ivith milky acrid juice, opf^osite, 

 alternate, or luJiorled leaves, entire, or toothed on the ed^cs and which 

 bear tnonoicious, or dioecious Jloiuers. 



Among the many members of this very large order that have from lack of 

 space here been omitted we recall Ricinus communis, the castor-oil jjlant. 

 Mostly it is planted in gardens throughout the south for its virtue in keep- 

 ing away ground moles, but it is also occasionally seen as an escape. 



ALABAMA CROTON. {Plate XC///.) 



Crbton Alabamcnsts. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Spiifgc. IV'hite. Scented. Central Alahania. All the year. 



Floxvers : monoecious, growing in terminal racemes. Calyx of the sterile flowers, 

 five-lobed. Petals: about equalling the sepals in length. Stamens: twenty, or 

 more. Fertile flowers, growing at the bases of the sterile spikes. Leaves: alter- 

 nate, with scaly petioles, oblong-lanceolate and rather blunt at the apex ; entire, 

 dark green and smooth above, the lower surface covered with silvery and lustrous 

 scales, as are also the twigs; thin. Sfe?n: tall, much branched, woody, six to ten 

 feet high and covered with a white, or greyish bark. 



This most rare and very local spurge is no doubt the beautiful one of its 

 genus, and in Alabama, at Pratt's Ferry and near the LittleCahawba River, 

 where it was discovered by Professor E. A. Smith, it forms thickets of such 

 extent and impenetrability that they are known by the inhabitants of this 

 region as " Pivet brakes." Away from its native haunts it is mostly seen in 

 parks, where through the wondrous silvery light of its leaves' undersides it is 

 ever a most ornamental individual. 



C. glandulbsus, glandular croton, a hairy, rough plant, is mostly found 

 in sandy, waste ground, or fertile soil about dwellings. Usually its stem is 

 corymbosely branched, and the leaves with their conspicuous basal glands 

 are oblong and ruggedly serrate. Very insignificant are its spikes of bloom, 

 although the four petals of the staminate tlowers are longer than the calyx- 

 lobes. 



C. marit\mus, an inhabitant of sand drifts along the coast from Florida 

 to North Carolina, is noticeably covered with a somewhat rusty and scurfy 

 pubescence. It is a bushy plant, two to three feet high, and, as is often cus- 

 tomary with the spurges, branches in the way of umbels. Its flowers are 

 without petals. When in fruit, however, the three-celled capsules are 

 very pretty, being pale green, velvety and containing greyish, mottled seeds. 



