EUPHORBIACE^-SPURGE FAMILY 



SNOW-ON-THE-MOUNTAIN 



Euph&rhia marginata. 



Euphorbia, said by Pliny to be named in honor of Euphorbus, the 

 physician of King Juba; possibly from the Greek word for fat. 



A very handsome annual, cultivated because of the beautiful white- 

 margined leaves and bracts that crown the stem and surround the incon- 

 spicuous flowers. Native to Ohio and westward. July and August. 



Stem. — Erect, stout, two to three feet high, covered with white, woolly 

 hairs and topped by a three-rayed umbel of whitish flowers and leafy 

 bracts; juice milky, acrid. 



Leaves. — Except the whorl subtending the umbel, scattered, ovate to 

 oblong or obovate, two and a half to three inches long, entire. 



Leaf-bracts. — Subtending the involiicral groups, large, white-margined, 

 clustered, conspicuous. 



Involucre. — Green, bell-shaped, bearing four or more green glands, 

 each with a white, petal-like appendage. 



Flowers. — Monoecious; both staminate and pistillate destitute of ca- 

 lyx as well as corolla, and together contained in a bell-shaped involucre 

 which imitates a calyx. 



Stamens. — Four to several, each regarded as a separate flower; 

 each is possessed of a tiny, white, thread-like bract; all are enclosed in 

 the involucral bell. 



Ovary. — Three-lobed and three-celled, rises from the centre of the 

 involucre on a long curved pedicel; styles three, each two-cleft; stig- 

 mas six. 



Fm/.— When ripe bursts into three separate carpels each having 

 one seed. 



This is one of the most interesting plants in cultivation, because 

 its floral structure is so unusual. The slender, pale-green stems 

 are about three feet high, each one bearing at its summit a flat 

 cluster of white-margined leaves, the whole being from four to 

 six inches across. Upon examination each cluster resolves itself 



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