EUPHORBIACE^E. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 439 



7. CROTONOPSIS, Michx. Crotonopsis. 



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

 lower fertile. Ster. Fl. Calyx equally 5-parted. Petals 5, spatulate. Sta- 

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

 the apex. Fert. Fl. Calyx unequally 3 - 5-parted. Petals none. Glands 

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

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

 — A slender low annual, with alternate or opposite short-petiolcd 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 Kpurotu, and ctyis, appearance, for a 

 plant with the aspect and general character of Croton.) 



1. C. linearis, Michx. — Dry sandy soil, New Jersey (Knieskern, 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. 

 argentea, Pursh. 



8. PHYLLANTHUS, L. Piitllanthus. 



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 caruuculate. — Leaves alternate, 2-ranked, with small stipules. (Name com- 

 posed of (pvWov, leaf, and tivdos, 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 

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



9. PACHYSANDRA, Michx. Pachysandra. 



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

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

 long-linear. 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 naxCs, thick, and avBpa, used 

 for stamen). 



1. P. proeiimbens, 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. 



