438 EUPH0RBIACBJ2. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 



caninculate. — Stellate-downy, or scurfy, or hairy and glandular plants, mostly 

 strong-scented ; the sterile flowers above ; the fertile usually at the base of the 

 same spike or cluster. Leaves alternate, or sometimes imperfectly opposite, 

 with or without obvious stipules. (Kportav, the Greek name of the Castor-oil 

 Plant, of this family.) 



§ 1. GEISELERIA, Klotzsch. Sterile flowers mostly with a 4-parted calyx, 

 as many ovate-lanceolate petals, a 4-rayed disk, and 8 stamens : fertile flowers 

 with a b-parted calyx, and very minute awl-shaped rudiments of petals ; the 

 3 styles 2-cleft. 



1 . C. glanduldsus, L. Annual, rough-hairy and glandular ( 1 ° - 2° high ) , 

 somewhat umbellately branched ; leaves oblong or linear-oblong, obtusely toothed, 

 the base with a saucer-shaped gland on each side ; fertile flowers capitate-clus- 

 tered at the base of the sterile spike, sessile in the forks and terminal. — Open 

 waste places, Virginia, Illinois, and southward. July - Sept. 



§ 2. PILINOPHYTUM, Klotzsch. Sterile flowers with the calyx equally 5- 

 parted, as many glands alternate with the petals, and 10-14 stamens: fertile 

 flowers with a 7-12-parted calyx and vjithout petals; the 3 styles twice or 

 thrice 2-parted. 



2. C. eapitatus, Michx. Annual, densely soft-woolly and somewhat 

 glandular (l°-2° high), branched; leaves long-petioled, lance-oblong or elon- 

 gated-oblong, rounded at the base, entire ; petals obovate-lanceolate, densely 

 fimbriate ; fertile flowers several, capitate-crowded at the base of the short ter- 

 minal sterile spike. — Barrens of Illinois, Kentucky, and southward. Pine 

 barrens of New Jersey, Knieskem ! July - Sept. 



§3. GYNAMBL6SIS, Torr. (Engelmannia, Klotzsch.) Sterile flowers with 

 an unequally 3-b-parted calyx, and as many petals and scale-like (/lands; the 

 stamens varying from 3.-11: fertile flowers with an equally b-parted calyx, 

 and with no petals, 5 glands, and a 2- 3<elled ovary, crowned with as many 

 sessile 2-parted stigmas. 



3. C. monanthogynus, Michx. Annual, whitish-stellate-pubescent and 

 rusty -glandular ; stems (l°-2° high), slender, erect, below often umbellately 

 3-4-forked, then repeatedly 2-3-forked or alternately branched ; leaves oblong- 

 ovate or narrowly oblong, entire, often acutish (6"- 12" long, about twice 

 the length of their petioles) ; flowers in the forks, the sterile few on the sum- 

 mit of a short and erect peduncle, the fertile few and clustered or mostly soli- 

 tary on short recurved peduncles ; stamens 3 - 8 ; ovary 2-celled ; fruit often 

 by abortion 1 -celled and 1 -seeded; the seed broadly oval. (C. ellfpticum, Nutt. 

 Engelmannia Xuttalliana, Klotzsch. Gynamblosis monanthogyna, Torr.) — 

 Barrens and dry prairies, from Illinois and Kentucky southward and west- 

 ward. June - Sept. 



(C. ectrigtnus, as it may be named, is the related Texan species, — with 

 more silvery down, rounder leaves on longer petioles, 7-12 stamens, more pe- 

 duncled fertile flowers, and a 3-celled ovary generally ripening 3 oblong-oval 

 seeds, — mentioned by Torrey as a possible variety of this, and taken by 

 Baillon and Midler for C. ellipticus of Nuttall.) 



