SP0UGE FAMILY. 293 



101. SAURURACEiE, LIZARD'S-TAIL FAMILY. 



A very small family, having a single Eastern North American 

 representative in 



SauriirUS c6rnuus, Lizaed's-tail. Wet swamps : fl. summer ; stem 

 jointed, 2° liigh, branching; leaves heart-shaped, with converging ribs, petioled; 

 flowers white, crowded' in a dense but slender tail-like spike, with the end 

 nodding, perfect, but with neither calyx nor corolla ; stamens 6 or 7, with long 

 slender white filaments ; pistils 3 or 4, slightly united at base. (Lessons, p. 90, 

 fig. 180.) 



102. EUPHORBIACE^, SPURGE FAMILY. 



Plants with mostly milky acrid' juice and monoecious or dioBcious 

 flowers, of very various structure ; the ovary and fruit commonly 

 3-celled and with single or at most a pair of hanging ovules and 

 seeds i«i each cell. 



§ 1.- Ovules and seeds only one in each cell 

 * Flowers both siaminnte and pisUUaie renlly destitute both of calyx and corolla ; a 

 pistillate and numerous stuminaie surrounded by a cup-like involucre which 

 imitates a cahjXj so that the whole woul(^ be taken for one perfect Jtower. 



1. EUPHORBIA. For the structure of the genus, which is recondite, see Manual, 



and Structural Botany, fig. 1143. These plants may be known, mostly, by 

 having the S-lobed ovary raised out of the cup, on a curved stalk, its 3 

 short styles each 2-cleft, making 6 stigmas. Fruit when ripe bursting into 

 the 3 carpels, and each splitting into ,2 valves, discharging the seed. What 

 seems to be a stamen with a jointed filament is really a staminate flowei*, in 

 the axil of a slender bract, coiisisting of a single stamen on a pedicel, the joint 

 being the junction. 



« * Flowers of both kinds provided with a distinct calyx. 



2. STILLINGIA. Flowers in a teiTninal spike, naked and staminate above, a few 



fertile flowers at base. Calyx 2 - 3-cleft. Stamens 2, rarely 8. Pod 3-lobed. 

 Stigmas 3, simple. Bracts with a fleshy gland on each side. Leaves alter- 

 nate, stipulate. 



3. ACALYPHA. Flowers in small clusters disposed in spikes, staminate above, 



fertile at base ; or sometimes the two sorts in separate"" spikes. Calyx of 

 sterile flowers 4-parted, of fertile 3- 5-parted. 'Stamens 8-16, short, mona- 

 delphous at base; the 2 cells of the anther long and hanging. Styles 3, 

 cutrfringed on the upper face, red. Pod of 3 (rarely 2 or 1) lobes or cells. 

 Fertile flower-clusters embraced by a leaf-like cut-lobed bract. Leaves alter- 

 nate, petioled, with stipules, serrate. 

 i. KICINUS. Flowers in large panioled clusters, the fertile above, the staminate 

 below. Calyx 5-parted. Stamens very many, in several bundles. Styles 3, 

 united at base, each 2-parted, red. Pod large, 3-lobed, with 3 large seeds. 

 Leaves alternate, with stipules." 



5. JATROPHA. Flowers in cymes or panicles; the fertile in the main forks. 



.Calyx colored like a corolla, in the sterile flowers mostly salver-shaped and 

 5-loDed, enclosing 10-30 stamens, somewhat monadelphous in two or more 

 ranks; in the fertile 5-parted. Styles 3, united below, once or twice forked - 

 at the apex. Pod 3-eelled, 3-8eeded. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, with 

 stipules. 



§ 2. Ovules and mostly seeds 2 in each cell of the ovary and 3-h'orned pod. Juice not 

 milky in the foUowin;): which have moncedom floioers, i sepals, 4 exserted 

 stamens in the sterile, and 3 awUshaped spreading O)' recurved styles or stigmas 

 in the fertile flowers. 



6. BDXUS. Flowers in small sessile bracted clusters in the axils of the thick 



and evergreen entire opposite leaves. Shrubs or trees. 



7. PACHYSAjNDRA. Flowers in naked lateral spikes, staminate above, a few 



fertile flowers at base. Filaments long, thickish and flat, white. Nearly- 

 herbaceous, low, tufted: leaves barely evergreen, alternate, coarsely fevt- 

 toothed. 



