SPURGE FAMILY 



UT 



glaihh 4, with long cusps. — A very common garden weed. — PI. 

 July — NoN'ember. Annual. 



15. £. exigiia (Dwarf Spurge). — A more slender litrie plant, 

 usually branched near the ground, with linear7e-az'« ; umbel of 3 — 

 5 forked rays; brads lanceolate. — Cornfields; common. — Fl. June 

 — October. Annual. 



16.* E. Ld.hynis (Caper Spurge). — A remarkable plant, 2 — 3 

 feet high, succulent, glaucous, tinged with purple, with numerous, 

 spreading, linear-oblong or strap-like leaves, opposite and regularly 

 decussate so as to form 4 vertical rows : nnibel ot 3 or 4 stout, 

 unequal, irregularly forked 

 rays ; capsule very large, 

 smooth, full of milky 

 juice. — Chiefly a garden 

 weed ; but perhaps wild in 

 some woods. — Fl. June, 

 July. Biennial. 



2. P>l'xls (Box). — 

 Evergreen trees and 

 shrubs ; leaves opposite, 

 cxstipulate; flowers monce- 

 cious, axillary, brarteate, 

 the stammate with 2 

 alternating pairs of peri- 

 anth-leaves, the carpellate 

 with 6 — r2 in alternating 

 whorls of 3 ; stamens 4 ; 

 (wa;-y3-chaml)ered.3-lobed 

 above ; styles 3 ; ovules 2 

 in each chamber; jruit cap- 

 sular. (Name,the Classical 

 Latin name of the tree.) 



I. B. seinpcrvirens (Common PSox-tree). — The only European 

 species, a small, slow-growmg tree, witli rough, grey bark; twigs 

 downy ; leaves oblong, obtuse, not more than an inch long ; 

 flowers crowded, sessile, minute, whitish. — Chdlk hills in the south, 

 doubtfuUv indigenous. I'he juice is bitter ahd acridly poisonous, 

 but not milky as in the Spurges. The close-grained, yellow wood, 

 the only European wood which does not float in water, is un- 

 equalled for engraving. \ dwarf variety is commonly used as an 

 edging for garden borders. — Fl. April, ^fay. Perennial. 



3, IMERCURi.iLis (Mercury). — Herbs with oppcsite, stalked, 

 serrate, stipulate leaves: flowers mostly dicecious ; perianth of 3 



MKRCUKIALIS FEKK 



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