WAYSIDE WEEDS. 131 



being very odd concerns. The illustration (Fig. 

 83) reprg^sents a single set of flowers of the dwarf 

 spurge in two positions, and magnified of course. 

 You observe a set of flowers, not a single flower, 

 for that which seems to occupy the position of 

 perianth is ranked as the involucre, containing 

 several barren or stamen flowers (Fig. 83), and 

 one fertile or pistil flower, which has its germen 



Fia. 83— Mugnifled Blossoms of Petty Spurge. A, front view: a, glands of 

 ittToluore; h, stamens; c, ovary; d, pistils. B, side vjevr: a, involucre ; 

 h, glands ; c, ovary ; d, pistils. 



crowned with three forked or bifid styles, and is 

 conspicuously extruded. In addition, however, to 

 the stamens and pistils, the involucre contains a 

 set of remarkable "horned glands/' the real 

 perianth, which might be expected to lie within 

 the involucre, is scarcely, if at all, present, in the 

 form of a minute scale. 



The starwort, third in our group (Fig. 82), is 



