EUPHOEBIACEiE 81 



1. P. paucifolia, Willd. Floweking Winteegreen. 



A low glabrous perennial from a creeping rootstook, with the leaves on the 

 lower part of the stem either much reduced cr absent, and a clump of crowded 

 ovate leaves on short petioles at the summit, surmounted by 1-3 large rose- 

 purple flowers rising from the axils of the upper leaves; keel of the corolla 

 with a fringed crest; stamens 6. Shady woods, E. Man. and westward. 



2. P. senega, L. Seneca Snakeroot. 



Stems simple, glabrous, erect or ascending, several from hard knotty 

 rootstocks; leaves simple, lanceolate to oblong; flowers small, white, crest 

 short, in close terminal spikes. Common across the prairie, Man.-Alta. 



XLV. EUPHOKBlACE.ffi; (Spuege Family). 



Plants with a bitter milky juice, and monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers. The floral envelopes may vary greatly or be wanting, 

 or, as in our representatives, greatly reduce'd, and enclosed in a 

 calyx-like involucre. Ovary 3-eelled; ovules 1 or 2 in each cell; 

 styles as many as the cells of the ovary; fruit a 3-lobed capsule. A 

 very large family, but mostly tropical, and only represented here by 

 the genus Bul)horbia. 



EUPHORBIA. Spurge. 



Flowers monoecious, enclosed in a 4 or 5-lobed involucre which 

 resembles a calyx, and bears in the angles large glands which are 

 easily mistaken for petals. Sterile flowers numerous in each in- 

 volucre, each one just a single stamen from a minute bract; fertile 

 flowers solitary in the involucre, consisting of just a 3-lobed and 

 3-celled ovary, soon protruded by the lengthening of the pedicel. 

 Low spreading herbs with a bitter milky juice. 



1. E. glyptosperma, Engelm. 



Spreading, glabrous; leaves linear-oblong, about | in. long, sometimes 

 slightly curved, very oblique at the base and minutely serrulate towards 

 the apex; stipules divided into bristles; flowers very small in dense lateral 

 clusters ; seeds with 5 or 6 distinct cross-wrinkles and sharply 4-angled but 

 not pitted. Gravelly soil, Man.-Alta., becoming a common dooryard weed. 



2. E. serpyllifdlia, Pers. 



Resembling the preceding, but darker green with a tendency to become 

 reddish as the plant gets older; leaves not curved and often sharply serrulate 

 to about the middle; seeds only very slightly wrinkled and often pitted. 

 Dry soil, Man.-Alta. 

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