SPURGE FAMILY. Euphorbiaceae. 



SPURGE FAMILY. EuplwrUacece. 



Plants with usually a milky and acrid juice, bearing 

 staminate and pistillate flowers on one plant or exclu- 

 sively either kind on one plant, so there sliall be stami- 

 nate ones, and pistillate ones, hence they are largely 

 dependent upon insects for fertilization. The flowers 

 are irregularly or imperfectly constructed, i. e., in some 

 instances without petals, and in others polypetalous or 

 even monopetalous. Fruit generalh' a three-lobed cap- 

 sule. Represented in the northern countries by the 

 genus Euphorbia, but largely a tropical family. 



A prostrate, spreading weed common in 

 Euphorbia ^^^^ sand of the seashore ; stem branched 



polygonifolia and smooth. Flowers inconspicuous and 

 Whitish green usually solitar}' at the bases of the small 

 ^"^y- linear oblong leaves. Seed-capsule round- 



ovoid, and ash gray-colored. Branches 

 3-7 inches long. Along the Atlantic coast from R. I., 

 south, and on the shores of the Great Lakes. 



A prostrate weed common throughout 

 Milk Purslane ]S[Qi-th America, in open places and on 

 '^ ^" ^ roadsides. Stems usually dark red, hairy 



Euphorbia ^nd spreading radiately like common pus- 



macji/afa ley ; leaves toothed, red-blotched, and 



Whitish or dark green in color, oblong and obtuse, 



ruddy about 1 inch long. The whitish or ruddy 



June- . ^ ^ , , -^ 



September inconspicuous flowers growing at the bases 



of tlie leaves. Branches 3-12 inches long. 

 Common everywhere. 



A smooth or slightly hairy annual, the 

 Preslii oblique and three-ribbed leaves of which 



Whitish or are red-spotted and margined ; similar to 

 ruddy those of the preceding species. The stem 



^*y" branched and nearly upright. The insig- 



nificant flowers whitish or ruddy, and obo- 

 void in shape. 8-20 inches high. Common everywhere 

 in fields, by roadsides, and on the borders of thickets. 



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