SPURGE FAMILY 



Poinsettia, is the most gorgeous and tropical of all the red- 

 flowered plants grown for Christmas decoration. The true 

 flowers are the inconspicuous yellow dots in the centre of the 

 glowing rosette of leaf-like bracts and leaves at the summit of the 

 stem, but nobody cares about those; it is the red leaves that call 

 forth our admiration. 



The plant is tropical and at home it glows in the shaded gloom 

 of a swampy jungle. At the North it must be grown in the green- 

 house ; in Florida it romps at will in the gardens and lawns. The 

 gardeners have developed varieties with white and with yellow 

 bracts; also have succeeded in increasing the bracts and en- 

 larging the leaves of the type. The plants were first introduced 

 to horticulture by Dr. Poinsett, of Charleston, S. C, about 1833. 

 and their garden name is in his honor. 



Annual Poinsettia, Euphorbia heterophylla, grows two to three 

 feet high, bears variable leaves, the upper ones bright-red, and 

 can be grown in sunny places. Native to our Southern States, 

 and blooms from July to September. 



CASTOR-BEAN 



Ricinus communis. 

 Ricinus notes the resemblance of the seed to certain insects. 



A tree-like herb, common in cultivation as a decorative plant. Trop- 

 ical. 



5<ew.— Bright-green to dark-red, three to fifteen feet in the United 

 States, thirty to forty in the tropics. 



Leaves. — Large, alternate, pehate, palmate, seven to many lobed; 

 lobes serrate. 



F/0WW5.— Monoecious, without petals or disk; in terminal and ap- 

 parently lateral racemes; the fertile above, the staminate below. 

 Calyx. — Five-parted. 



Stamens.— Yery numerous, with repeatedly branching filaments. 

 Styles.— Thrtt, united at base, each two-cleft, red. 

 Capsule.— La,rge, three-lobed with three large seeds 



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